Chihuahua.– The federal courts of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, based in Chihuahua, are headed by 37 men and only 14 women in the positions of judges and magistrates, which requires changing the judicial reform to strictly establish gender parity.
The disparity is most noticeable in the courts of Ciudad Juárez, where there are 17 men and three women in the positions of judge, while in the capital there are 20 men and 11 women.
With 51 federal judges and magistrates in Chihuahua corresponding to the Seventeenth Circuit, 27 of them would be elected by popular vote on the first Sunday of June next year, according to the draft constitutional reform on justice approved by the Congress of the Union and in the process of approval by the majority of the congresses of the states of the country.
An analysis of the provisions of the possible reform raises the issue of the situation of federal judges in the state, whose positions would be subject to open elections to the public between next year and 2027.
This reform, promoted mainly by the Morena parliamentary group and the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with the support of President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, has generated mobilizations in all the federal courts of the country, as workers claim that the separation of powers and the independence of the Judiciary will be violated.
Considerations that the reform would bring
However, in an analysis by the Morena group to which El Diario had access, some favorable considerations that the reform would bring are reflected.
The document states that federal judges and magistrates in office will be renewed in two stages by popular vote, but current decision-makers will be able to participate in the aforementioned election without going through a series of filters, that is, they will go directly to the ballot that will be available for citizens to participate directly.
The election for the first stage or first half of the positions to be renewed will be on the first Sunday of June 2025, so that those elected can take the oath of office on September 1 of that same year; the second stage will be on the same day, but in 2027.
Half of those to be renewed will be chosen by means of a public drawing of lots carried out by the Senate of the Republic and the rest, that is, the other half, in the year 2027.
In the analysis of Morena at the local level, some of the requirements to be eligible for the vote are established, such as having a degree in Law, having had a minimum general grade point average of 8.0 and 9.0 in the subjects related to the position for which one is applying, and a professional practice of at least five years in the exercise of legal activity.
It also establishes that the intervention of public officials and political parties will be prohibited during the electoral campaign.
In terms of financing, candidates will have equal access to official radio and television time; the campaign will last sixty days and they will be able to use their social networks, but without hiring advertising, that is, they will not be able to pay to publicize themselves or their proposals.
Landed in Chihuahua
The document states that the state of Chihuahua has federal jurisdictional bodies only in the cities of Juárez and Chihuahua.
Throughout the state, there are 27 circuit judges and 25 district judges who head the federal courts in the two justice centers that serve the demands of the entire state.
On the border, there are nine circuit judges and 11 district judges, of whom 17 are men and three are women. In the capital, there are 18 circuit judges and 13 district judges, of whom 11 are women and 20 are men.
With this number of judges and the willingness to begin the renewal in 2025 with full respect for the gender parity established in the reform, in the first stage there would be 27 courts that would have new judges through direct vote.
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