JUDICIAL REFORM IN THE AMERICAS:

STRATEGIES AND RESULTS OF JSCA’S WORK

• Overall, justice systems have been strengthened over the past few decades:

– Increased jurisdictions (important: constitutional jurisdiction)– Weakness of policy and other agencies, they reinforce their

role– Significant increase in use of the system and the systems’

response capacity– Growth in resources (budgets tripled), investment (multilateral

bank projects), personnel (average number of judges per capita is almost equal to that of Europe and the number of prosecutors is greater), salaries

– Improved selection systems (transparency and competition)– Fewer intense interventions and more costs related to them– Improvements in education and training (judicial academies)– Strong JUDICIAL REFORM process, mainly in the area of

criminal justice

JUSTICE IN THE REGION

JUSTICE IN THE REGION

• But improvements not perceived by the general population

• Confidence in judges is low (30% according to Latinobarómetro 2007, down from 36% in 2006).

• Serious problems continue with: -Efficiency and effectiveness– Congestion and delay– Corruption– Discrimination against vulnerable groups– Quality and lack of case law– Scant information

• Need to monitor reforms: strong initial support drops off at the most critical point in the implementation process

• Need to know more about what works and what doesn’t and why

JSCA’S PERSPECTIVE

• JSCA was created when this process was already ongoing and had involved many actors at the national and international levels.

• JSCA does not want to displace them or limit their leadership. The Center’s goal is instead to cover gaps related to:– Possible synergies in regional work and through

networks– The incorporation of a real public policy perspective

• JSCA looks to give new impetus to a reform process that was losing its initial impulse.

STEP 1: Knowledge

STEP 2: Generating Discussion

STEP 3: Developing Instruments

STEP 4: Intervention Projects

JSCA’S STRATEGY AREAS OF ACTION

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

MANAGEMENT AND

INFORMATION

CIVIL JUSTICE

2000

2002

2004

2005

2001

2003

2004

2005

2005

2007

2008

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

• Follow-up Studies on Criminal Procedure Reform:– 16 country reports that cover Latin American nations– 3 comparative reports on Latin American countries– 3 reports on countries in the English speaking

Caribbean– 19 local validation seminars– 4 inter-American seminars– 4 specialized publications

MAIN FINDINGS

• Excess of confidence in the law as an agent of change

• Limited understanding of oral procedures• Little attention to implementing new

procedures:– Failure to adjust organizations, positions,

processes– Weak coordination– Weak political support– Formal training

Percentage of Scheduled Trials That Were Held

35 43

83

30

98

2741

76

49

76

17

020406080

100120

Location

% T

rial

s H

eld

Training As An Instrument of Change

• Training for reform must include a sense of play-Traditional training tries to educate through normative knowledge of the rules

• Training must provide the skills needed to fulfill new roles (the problem of friends of the reform)

• New training breaks with traditional paradigms:– Knowledge vs. Skills– Skills for my job only– Institutional autism vs. Inter-institutionality– From problems to solutions

Training Activities Held

• Inter-American Program for Training Trainers for Criminal Procedure Reform:

– The program has been implemented 5 times since 2004 (including this year).

– It has graduated 248 students from 18 countries.– We received 974 applications for the 5 programs.– Average grade on the final paper was 81% in

2007.– 94 local replicas held and attended by over 6,964

beneficiaries.

CEJACAMPUS

• The Virtual Campus is our space for developing e-learning courses.

• Its operation is vital to the Inter-American Program. The e-learning session is the longest stage of the course, lasting approximately 6 months.

• It has been used for other training programs including:– Virtual Course for Latin American Prosecutors (two versions):

227 students – Virtual Course for Guatemalan Judges,

Prosecutors and Public Defenders:

231 students

CIDA Evaluation (2006)

• The ISCJR project is consistent with a key development priority for Latin American nations. JSCA’s research and training programs are appreciated throughout the region. The training methodology employed is effective and benefits from an ongoing evaluation and review process. The projects that have been replicated significantly increase the impact of JSCA training programs.

• The objectives of the ISCJR project are practical, relevant and important for the success of justice reform programs.

• The ISCJR project administration shows high levels of efficiency, effectiveness and economy.

• The ISCJR is an outstanding example of success in South-South cooperation that utilizes Chilean and Argentine judicial reform experiences as models in the design of new approaches to reforms in other Latin American countries.

Main Intervention Projects•Ecuador: Cuenca and Quito

–Follow-up Project on Criminal Procedure Reform since 2002Local Counterpart: Fundación Esquel

•Costa Rica: – Follow-up Project on Criminal Procedure Reform since 2001 Institutional Support: Supreme Court of Costa Rica

•Guatemala: Quetzaltenango – Follow-up Project on Criminal Procedure Reform since 2002–Judicial Statistics Projects since 2005 Local Counterpart: Instituto Comparados en Ciencias Penales de Guatemala (ICCPG)

•Argentina: Province of Buenos Aires–Follow-up Project on Criminal Procedure Reform since 2001Local counterparts: INECIP, CELS–“Agreement for the Reform of the Adversarial System in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina” (2 December 2004) –“Agreement to Extend the Program to Strengthen Criminal Justice to the Entire Province of Buenos Aires" (28 June 2006)Local counterparts: Supreme Court, Attorney General’s Office, Ministry of Justice of the Province of Buenos Aires

In each of these cases we began by taking a baseline and then proceeded to periodically evaluate the results.

Mar del Plata, Argentina Project

18.74

327.25

546.08

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Days

Pilot Plan Baseline -

Criminal CourtsBaseline Oral Trial Court

Conditional Trial Suspensions

21.57

240.73

397.27

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Days

Pilot Plan BaselineCriminal Courts

Baseline- Oral Trial Court

Abbreviated Trials

Other Key JSCA Projects

• Report on Judicial Systems in the Americas (Third Edition – CIDA)

• Judicial Information System and Indicators for Ibero-America (Ibero-American Judicial Summit- IDB)

• Use of Technology in Justice Administration in Latin America (Microsoft)

• Agenda for Civil Justice Reform• Virtual Course on Gender and

Justice

Virtual Information Center

• JSCA Virtual Community and RED-EX- 95,000 hits on www.cejamericas.org in 2007- 204 active members of training program graduates’ network

(Red-EX)• Virtual Library- 6,057 online documents (4,361 in Spanish and 1,696 in

English)- Online collaboration system for uploading - documents• Nexus Newsletter - 84 bilingual monthly bulletins published- 9,030 subscribers (6,746 read it in Spanish and 2,284 in

English)• Judicial Systems Journal- 13 biannual print issues- New virtual format will be launched in 2008

Institutions Associated with JSCA’s Work

Judicial Educators’ Network – JEDNET

Ibero-American Association of Prosecutor’s Offices

Inter-American Association of Public Defender’s Offices

Ibero-American Judicial Summit

Organization of American States (OAS)

Ibero-American Network of Judicial

Academies

JSCA’s Financial Sustainability

From its inception, JSCA’s Statutes considered the provision of voluntary contributions by Member states.

“The Center and its activities shall be financed by voluntary contributions provided by the OAS member states and by funds from other public and

private sources.

To that end, the Board of Directors shall authorize the establishment of specific and fiduciary funds that may be required, such as those provided for in Articles 68 and 69 of the General Standards to Govern the Operations of the

General Secretariat of the Organizations of American States.” (Article 17 of the JSCA Statutes)

JSCA’s Strategic Plan for Financial Sustainability-Approved by IV and V REMJA-Approved at the XXXVI OAS General Assembly -Mentioned by the XXXVII Assembly, which ordered the Permanent Council to monitor this matter.

The approved Plan focused on the need to obtain direct contributions from Member States that allow the Center to at least cover its basic operating costs and the generation of regional public goods.

Multilateral Efforts JSCA has contacted Ministries of Justice, Attorney General’s Offices, Prosecution Services and Ministries of Foreign Affairs, informing the appropriate OAS agencies and Permanent Missions of this effort.

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