Mexico City.- The Supreme Court is not only proposing reforms to the justice system, but also a change of focus on security and the fight against drugs, as well as support for prisoners in vulnerable situations.
In the document “Comprehensive reform of the justice system in Mexico: challenges and proposals”, the Supreme Court identifies some of the challenges of access to justice and proposes a comprehensive reform, such as standardizing the rules of the judicial career in the country’s judicial branches and promoting itinerant days of access to justice.
The president of the Supreme Court and the Judicial Council, Minister Norma Piña, shared this Sunday the document, as well as the text “The Reform of the Judicial Branch in the Voice of the Judiciary”, which details alternatives to improve access to justice. Other initiatives proposed by the Supreme Court are to repeal legal figures, such as pretrial detention; and to strengthen the scope of the amparo trial in matters of reparations and suspensions.
“Comprehensive solutions are proposed for a complex problem such as ensuring access to justice that is expeditious, sensitive, respectful and close to people and their needs,” the proposal states.
In order to prepare it, initiatives arising from the National Meeting for a Security and Justice Agenda were integrated, held in 14 different venues throughout the country between March 21 and July 8, 2024. Specialized literature, statistical sources, as well as national and international human rights reports were also reviewed; in addition, approaches from academics from the UNAM Institute of Legal Research were integrated. For their presentation, the proposals were grouped into the following areas: public security, criminal justice, local judicial powers, ethics and institutional legitimacy, as well as corruption and nepotism. A section was also made on access to justice and the protection of human rights, access to justice in the face of inequality, effective judicial resources, the penitentiary system, and comprehensive public defense. These are the proposals:
On ethics and judicial legitimacy
1. Conduct a critical review of the flow of judicial processes to ensure a people-centred perspective of justice. 2. Standardise the rules of the judicial career in the country’s judicial branches. 3. Develop training and assessment programmes in knowledge and skills for ethics and institutional legitimacy.
B. Regarding the strengthening of local judicial powers
4. Strengthen the institutional capacity of local judicial powers to meet citizens’ demands for justice. 5. Implement a judicial career and selection mechanisms for all judicial positions. 6. Allocate the necessary resources to implement oral proceedings in civil and family justice, as well as consolidate oral proceedings in commercial justice. 7. Consolidate labor justice. 8. Implement effective mechanisms for judicial discipline. 9. Restore and strengthen local constitutionalism. 10. Increase the economic resources of local criminal justice.
C. In terms of substantive and procedural regulatory design
11. Repeal legal figures, such as pretrial detention, that lead to arbitrary deprivation of liberty. 12. Harmonize the definition of the crime of femicide, as well as standardize the applicable investigation protocols. 13. Expand and strengthen the scope of the amparo trial in terms of reparations and suspensions. 14. Create clear regulatory frameworks aimed at ensuring compliance with court rulings. 15. Strengthen procedural figures that promote collective access to justice. 16. Create regulatory, budgetary, and institutional conditions to launch itinerant national days of justice. 17. Guarantee that no less than 2% of the federal and state budgets be allocated to the judicial branches. 18. Design and issue a General Law on Public Defenders.
D. In matters of public safety
19. Reorient public security policies, promote their demilitarization and guarantee citizen participation in their design. 20. Strengthen the security, operation and accessibility of all authorities that carry out security work to the National Registry of Detentions. 21. Modernize the Command and Control Centers. 22. Establish a national certification mechanism for police institutions. 23. Implement a comprehensive strategy to combat human trafficking. 24. Consider abandoning the punitive approach of the policy towards drug use and drug dealing, and seek alternatives for detention in this context. 25. Simplify and harmonize the activation procedures of the AMBER Alert Program and the Alba Protocol. 26. Develop a national prevention and protection system for all justice operators. 27. Review and reform the regulatory and institutional framework of the criminal policy in force in the country. 28. Improve access to public information and mechanisms for evaluating security institutions. 29. Implement effective measures to improve firearms control. 30. Ensure compliance with the constitutional mandate and the strengthening of civil institutions.
E. Regarding criminal investigation
31. Investigate human trafficking through international cooperation. 32. Establish a global and comprehensive strategy for searching for and investigating cases of disappearance. 33. Ensure the national standardization of investigative instruments. 34. Establish strict selection systems for the staff of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office. 35. Promote the establishment of a national mechanism for training and certification of prosecutors and investigative police. 36. Incorporate the detention and disappearance of migrants into national records. 37. Promote a national policy for preventing disappearances from a structural perspective. 38. Encourage the articulation of reliable and constantly updated statistical systems. 39. Explore the establishment of an extraordinary mechanism for truth, justice and reparations. 40. Pursue crimes with an analysis of the investigation and prosecution of criminal phenomena and structures as a whole, not in a fragmented manner. 41. Develop and implement strategic criminal prosecution policies in federal and state prosecutor’s offices.
F. In the field of forensic and expert services
42. Create a General Law on Forensic Services that establishes a national institution for forensic services. 43. Strengthen institutional capacities in forensic matters and expert services. 44. Ensure that the Extraordinary Forensic Identification Mechanism has the budget, organizational structure and independence. 45. Establish and guarantee the operation of databases on forensic matters and expert services at the national level.
G. In the matter of public defense
46. Strengthen public defense services. 47. Increase the staff of public defense offices. 48. Guarantee technical and management autonomy of the country’s public defense offices. 49. Ensure the necessary budget allocations. 50. Uniformly regulate and consolidate the career civil service. 51. Establish clear and broad powers to provide legal advice and assistance in all matters. 52. Create independent areas or units for investigation and expert services in each public defense office. 53. Create standardized bases and protocols for attention and action. 54. Design efficient communication mechanisms for channeling cases between public defense offices. 55. Implement a policy for attention to populations with difficult access or in vulnerable situations. 56. Implement a comprehensive policy for attention to victims of human rights violations. 57. Other additional actions to strengthen public defense services in Mexico. 58. Incorporate indirect victims into search processes, as well as into judicial proceedings. 59. Strengthen the medical care provided by victim assistance committees. 60. Reform the immediate aid system within the victim assistance policy. 61. Create reporting and protection mechanisms for all vulnerable groups within prisons. 62. Strengthen the independence of judges of execution. 63. Implement interpretation and cultural mediation services for indigenous communities. 64. Train judges of execution, as well as penitentiary staff, in human rights issues and differentiated approaches. 65. Strengthen psychological care and comprehensive health programs within detention centers. 66. Adapt spaces in penitentiary centers to meet the differentiated needs of different population groups.
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