Association for a More Just Society (AJS)

Judicial Reform

Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts —Amos 5:15

Background: A System Ripe for Corruption

Before the reforms of 2001, the Supreme Court of Honduras was appointed every four years by the newly elected President. The Supreme Court then appointed the justices in the lower courts throughout the country. This process ensured that the entire court system was politically driven and had little accountability to the public.

In 2000, the Honduran National Human Rights Commission published a report with the evidence of widespread problems within the judicial system, including corruption, extortion, threats, record falsification, illegal imprisonment, malicious miscarriage of justice and refusal to hear cases within jurisdictional boundaries.

AJS Involvement: The Call for Reform

The Association for a More Just Society (AJS)'s Honduran partner organization, ASJ, became involved with the aim of reforming the Honduran judicial system to be timely, impartial and transparent for everyone. The objectives were to reform the system for electing Supreme Court Justices to avoid the trafficking of political and economic influence and to support the investigation and censure of corrupt magistrates. ASJ joined many other organizations in working for Judicial Reform, some of which had already spent many years working on the issue.

It turned out the ASJ's most important role in the reform was to compile the many proposals set forward in an easy-to-read document and to publicize the work done by these other human rights and civil action groups. ASJ prepared a point-by-point comparative analysis of the 6 most tenable proposals, including the ASJ position on each point, and a strategic guide to negotiating the reform in Congress. ASJ also devoted the first three editions of Revistazo, its online investigative journal, to the implementation of reform in the Supreme Court. These documents proved to be key tools used by the Presidential Commission, the Congressional Committee and the Supreme Court Nominating Committee.

ASJ also led the formation of a Coalition of the key organizations involved in Judicial Reform. These groups working together in the Judicial Reform Coalition were strong enough to present the most important reform points to Congressional leaders, who promised to include Judicial Reform in the 2000 legislative agenda.

When Congress voted for Judicial Reform, they made into law the vast majority of ASJ's suggestions. And later, when the government enacted the reform law in choosing a new Supreme Court, ASJ's investigations proved very influential in making sure that representatives of civil society were involved in appointing qualified, honest Justices.

Judicial Reform: Points from the New Law

Areas of Reform	Approved by Congress	AJS's Platform	AJS's Evaluation
Term of service by Supreme Court Justice	7 years	7 to 9 years	Excellent
Number of Justice in the Supreme Court	15	13	Good
Number of Supplemental Justices	Supplemental Justices eliminated	Eliminate Supplemental Justices	Excellent
Organization of Nominating Committee for Supreme Court Justices	To include representatives from civil society and nationally active community organizations	To include representatives from civil society and nationally active community organizations	Excellent
The authority to nominate new Justices	The Nominating Committee will nominate new justices	The Nominating Committee should nominate new justices	Excellent
The election of new Justices to the Supreme Court	Election by a 2/3 vote in Congress	Election by a 2/3 vote in Congress	Excellent
The election of the President of the Supreme Court	To be selected by the members of the Supreme Court and ratified by Congress	To be elected by members of the Supreme Court	Good
The reelection of Justices	Justices may be reelected	Justices may be reelected	Excellent
The removal of Justices	No provision for the removal of Justices	Justices should be removed for failure to complete duties satisfactorily	Poor
Budget for the Supreme Court	3% of the national budget	3% of the national budget	Excellent
Administration of Judicial power	The power to license new lawyers was removed from the Supreme Court and granted to a newly formed Judicial Counsel based in the National University	Remove the power to license new lawyers from the Supreme Court and form a separate Council to review new lawyers	Excellent

Areas of Reform