Protection centres for children as safe and protective environments from the point of view of the new Organic Law 8/2021

Abstract

The LOPIVI addresses, among many other issues, the regulation of care for minors in protection centers, with the clear objective of defining how these places are to be ensured as safe environments in which children, who are particularly vulnerable as they are deprived of the protection of a family environment, can grow up protected from any form of violence. The law is committed to regulating previous practices that are not without controversy, such as physical restraint, and to leaving the development of specific protocols for action in the hands of the Autonomous Communities, which is why it refers the final specification of the modalities of child protection to a later stage. The law is part of a model that has evolved over time in line with international human rights law, but it still leaves some grey areas that will have to be progressively clarified.