In the early 1900's Spain was in the forefront in the legal protection of children, focusing on rights regarding work and education. However, this progress was halted with the installment of Franco and his fascist regime in the 1936. Franco viewed child protection with a "manage and correct" attitude. This emphasized discipline and institutionalization of 'problem' children. There were two main options for child abuse victims. They would be given charity aid or they would be placed in a residential care program. However, these residential care programs were long and complicated processes and rarely were seen through till completion. The theme of Franco's child protection policies was on re-education and reform of children, presuming that their problems stemmed from the lacking morality of their families or the children themselves. Even when they were completed, the residence homes were often large and impersonal settings for children. Since Franco, Spain has made progress on children's rights, creating government policies that recognize them as subjects rather than objects.

With the acceptance of the new constitution in 1978, the Law of Child Protection (21/87) was passed. The main attitudes of child protection services (CPS) changed to the importance and prevention of all kinds of child maltreatment. A specialized division of CPS was created specifically for the more severe child abuse cases. This was a very different approach to child protection than the institutionalization approach of the Franco regime.

Before 1978 there were upwards of 20,000 children in out-of-home care programs, but now with the development of foster care and family treatment programs, the number of children in need of residential care has dropped. Further progress on child protection was made at the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). With the CRC, children began to be recognized as subjects rather than objects in need of protection. The responsibility of child protection was shifted from federal to autonomous regional governments so that the legislation past could most accurately address the specific needs of children in different parts of Spain. The progress in children's rights has placed a lot of responsibility on citizens to be informed, recognize and be intolerant of child abuse within Spanish communities.

This website was designed and composed by Joanna Cross-Call, Chana Lewis, and Lauren McBride. It was created to provide web users with information on the status of children in Spain. This is part of a collaborative web project for the first year writing seminar Children and Society, at Tulane University taught by Professor April Brayfield.

Last Updated December 9, 2004