CDMX.- Chief Justice Norma Piña said today that there is consensus on the need for reform, but to the justice system as a whole, and once again defended judicial independence as indispensable for the protection of rights and constitutional democracy.
“Judicial independence is a much more complex concept than the simple fact that powers are vested in different bodies. It is a guarantee for those seeking justice, but above all for those in conditions of greater vulnerability,” said the President of the Supreme Court of Justice.
“We need an independent judiciary, with well-prepared judges who are constantly training, who are capable of interpreting the rules from a rights perspective, and who have the guarantee that protecting those rights will not cost them their career, their freedom or even their own lives.”
In the afternoon, Piña closed the International Meeting on Judicial Independence organized by the Court and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in which judges from several Latin American countries, as well as academics, harshly criticized Morena’s initiative for all judges in the country to be elected by popular vote.
The need to review many other issues such as prosecutors, investigative police, the penitentiary system and alternative means of resolving disputes was also stressed, and not to focus solely on the judiciary.
The Minister expressed her hope that the interventions at the Meeting would serve as support for those who must decide on the reform, that is, the legislators who are currently ruling on the Executive’s initiative in the Chamber of Deputies.
Everything indicates that this initiative will undergo changes, and even today, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that current judges and magistrates would have the automatic right to appear on the ballots for the eventual election, while other candidates would be evaluated, and probably subjected to a drawing of lots, before being accepted into the process.
At the last panel of the Meeting, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, reiterated that the Morena initiative generates “many concerns” for her, which she already expressed in a letter sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).
“It is judicial independence that allows us to carry out the ideal of Morelos, that everyone who complains with justice has a court that listens to him, supports him and protects him against the strong and the arbitrary,” concluded Piña.
Since July, the Minister has expressed her rejection of the election of judges by popular vote, emphasized that the integration of the Judicial Branch is not a relevant concern for the users of the system, and asked López Obrador and the President-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum, for a dialogue.
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