Government adds bill to lower age of criminal responsibility to extraordinary sessions agenda

The Milei government has added a bill to lower the age of criminal responsibility to the agenda for the extraordinary sessions that will begin on February 2. A decree published on Tuesday in Argentina’s Official Gazette expanded the Congressional agenda and revived the debate on a new Juvenile Criminal Code.  The bill proposes reducing the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 14 years of age. The government has introduced the proposal in the past. In 2025, a congressional committee agreed on a final draft of the bill, but it was not debated on the house floor because it failed to garner parliamentary support. However, with a strengthened Congress after the ruling party’s landslide victory in the legislative elections in October, La Libertad Avanza (LLA) will now insist on the proposal. “Lowering the age of criminal responsibility can’t wait any longer,” Gabriel Bornoroni, the head of the LLA Deputies bloc, wrote on X. “Last year, we were unable to move forward with its passage due to Kirchnerism and its well-mannered allies. It’s time to settle that debt. Good Argentinians demand that this reform be approved,” he said. LA BAJA DE EDAD DE IMPUTABILIDAD NO PUEDE ESPERAR MÁS.El Presidente @JMilei sumará la Ley Penal Juvenil al temario de las sesiones extraordinarias. El año pasado no logramos avanzar con la sanción por culpa del kirchnerismo y sus aliados de buenos modales.Es hora de saldar…— Gabriel Bornoroni (@BornoroniG) January 26, 2026 If the law is approved, 14-year-olds who commit serious crimes could be held accountable like an adult. However, minors would serve their custodial sentences in special institutions separated from adults, where staff would have to be trained to deal with adolescents.  They would also receive education, medical care and substance abuse treatments. Critics say children should not be treated as adults and claim lowering the age of criminal responsibility will not lower the crime rate, and will only worsen the problem of prison overcrowding. Three killings The decision to relaunch the proposal — which will be debated in extraordinary sessions along with other controversial bills such as the labor reform, the changes to the Glaciers Law, and the Mercosur-European Union agreement — comes as a spate of crimes has intensified the public debate on the Juvenile Criminal Law. Since the beginning of the year, three brutal crimes apparently perpetrated by minors have shocked Argentines. The killings of 21-year-old Joaquín Ibarra, 12-year-old Uriel Giménez, and 15 year-old Jeremías Monzón in separate incidents  — which involved two boys aged 14 and 15 — have brought the debate back into the public eye.