Mexico City.- The United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers expressed her deep concern about President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s judicial reform initiative that Morena is seeking to approve next September.
On July 29, the rapporteur Margaret Satterthwaite communicated to the Mexican government her comments on the initiative, which seeks to have all the country’s judges, as well as the disciplinary court that will oversee them, elected by popular vote.
“The proposed initiatives could directly impact the functioning of the judiciary by subjecting the selection mechanism for judges to a procedure in which political considerations could easily override the objective merits of a candidate,” Satterthwaite said in the letter dated in Geneva, Switzerland.
“These concerns would be heightened in the context of mistrust that could exist around judicial selection processes that are carried out amid allegations of corruption, influence peddling and lack of effective mechanisms for civil society participation.”
The rapporteur stressed that the initiative, as sent by the Executive to Congress on February 5, does not establish independent mechanisms to verify whether candidates meet training, aptitude and integrity requirements, but rather leaves that function to a political body such as the Senate.
There is also no minimum popular vote requirement established for the election to be valid.
Satterthwaite also questioned the removal of nearly 1,800 federal judges and magistrates to be replaced by those elected by the people, the reduction of salaries of judicial personnel to adjust them to those determined by the President of the Republic, and the alignment of the terms of judges, magistrates and ministers of the Court with the six-year terms.
“During election periods, voters may be influenced by political rhetoric and partisan campaigning, which could lead them to align themselves with the selection of a judge who shares their political preference rather than a selection based on the competence and integrity of judicial candidates,” he said.
“The proposal to empower the Judicial Disciplinary Tribunal to sanction judges based on vague criteria such as ‘when their decisions do not adhere to the principles of objectivity, impartiality, independence, professionalism or excellence, as well as matters determined by law’, is contrary to international standards,” said the rapporteur, criticizing that the decisions of said tribunal would be final and unappealable.
American Satterthwaite, who answers to the UN Human Rights Council, had already warned last April about López Obrador’s constant verbal attacks against the Judiciary.
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