Latin America
On the site
Open Society Justice Initiative
Summary of Activities in Latin America, January 2003 to August 2004
International Justice
Colombia—ICC Cases
Since January 2003, the Justice Initiative has led a working group involving Colombian NGOs, as well as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and others to gather information on situations of potential interest to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. The project culminated in July with a meeting in The Hague and presentation of a written submission documenting Rome Statute crimes by all parties to the conflict in Colombia. In view of the ICC’s present focus on several situations in Africa, we are now exploring with other working group members how best to lay the foundation for ICC engagement in Colombia before the end of 2005. This may involve a meeting in Bogota aimed at assessing and addressing the likely political obstacles to the exercise of jurisdiction over Colombia.
National Criminal Justice Reform
Mexico: Promoting alternatives to pre-trial detention
This is a three-year pilot project designed to reduce, rationalize the use of, and promote alternatives to, pre-trial detention practices in Mexico City and in the northern city of Monterrey. As in many other countries, in Mexico pre-trial detention is often imposed in discriminatory fashion, with the disproportionate burden borne by persons allegedly involved in petty offences with limited opportunity to contest the charges against them. Our principal partner, the NGO Renace, has for many years provided bail assistance and supervision, and counseling to arrested defendants. These efforts have yielded a decrease in the number who fail to appear at trial and a decline in recidivism rates. This initiative aims to bolster Renace’s efforts to document and enhance its operating model and its impact on pre-trial detention practices—with a view to possible replication in other parts of Mexico. In addition, we are pursuing a cost-benefit analysis of Mexican pre-trial detention practices to ensured informed consideration of the social, economic and health consequences of pre-trial detention. Finally, in an effort to raise public awareness of the impact of pre-trial detention on the lives and life chances of innocent persons, the Justice Initiative is commissioning a series of personal histories about individuals detained while awaiting trial who have never been convicted. The case studies, plus a general background chapter on the misuse of, and alternatives to, pre-trial detention in Mexico, have been drafted by Mexican journalists and are published and disseminated in newspaper and journal articles, as policy papers and in book form. Read Los Mitos de la prisión preventiva en México.
Peru: Citizen Councils for Police Accountability
Since mid 2003, the Justice Initiative has worked in cooperation with OSI’s Latin America program to strengthen community-based police accountability mechanisms (consejos distritales de seguridad ciudadana—CDSCs). The CDSCs, bottom-up mechanisms to hold police accountable for conduct and service quality, offer an important opening for community participation in local security issues. The Justice Initiative provides training and technical assistance to civil society groups to facilitate CDSC work. The project is designed to democratize the provision of security and promote civilian cooperation with, and monitoring of, police agencies. Future steps may include a media campaign to promote the successes of the CDSCs and advocate refinements to their funding and legal regulation. The Justice Initiative is in dialogue with CONASEC, the central coordinating body for the CDSCs, the Inter-American Development Bank and several donors.
Freedom of Information (FOI)
International: The Access to Information Monitoring Tool
In 2004, the Justice Initiative is measuring levels of government transparency in 16 countries worldwide, including four in Latin America: Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Peru. Partner NGOs (including journalists and small business groups) have been trained in a common methodology; they began filing requests on April 19. In each country, ten requestors will file a total of 140 requests with 18 different public institutions. Questions are designed to elicit three kinds of information— characterized as “routine”, “difficult” and “sensitive”—and include requests on issues of relevance to OSI's work generally.
Mexico: FOI implementation
Since shortly before Mexico’s nationwide FOI law went into effect in 2003, the Justice Initiative has worked closely with NGO partner LIMAC in preparing for and promoting the law’s implementation. The Justice Initiative has assisted in training Mexican government officials in complying with the new legislation, by leading two teams of international experts (from countries such as the United Kingdom, Hungary, Sweden and Slovakia) with experience in applying FOI legislation in other contexts. Our project has engaged in public education about FOI in the NGO sector, and has provided legal assistance to human rights NGOs and advised on litigation to challenge refusals to provide information.
Peru: FOI education and litigation
Two related initiatives in Peru seek to increase public understanding and use of newly-adopted FOI legislation by providing education and advice to grassroots groups and assisting in legal challenges to unwarranted denials of information. One project provides advice to groups seeking information on local budgets, and assists in filing administrative appeals, and where necessary pursuing litigation. The second project, aimed at national and provincial NGOs, develops strategies in preparing FOI requests and litigation, and trains judges to apply the FOI law. Individual judicial decisions are archived on Justice Initiative and local databases.
Regional: litigation strategies
A March 2004 meeting in Buenos Aires brought together partners from across Latin America to discuss and seek opportunities for litigation and advocacy at the regional (Latin American) level to promote and deepen FOI norms. The meeting focused on the use of litigation to further standard setting, particularly before the Inter-American Commission and Court on Human Rights. Partners are now defining national litigation strategies—a Mexican draft strategy already exists. Two cases from Chile have been identified for pursuit at the Inter-American level, one of which has been submitted to the Commission and may benefit from a Justice Initiative amicus brief.
Freedom of Expression
Argentina Survey Project: Financial Interference
Even where government authorities refrain from outright suppression, they often resort to covert and indirect means to interfere with freedom of speech. Indirect interference of this kind takes various forms. These include the discriminatory use of state subsidies and advertising, pressures on private advertisers, unjustified denial of access to printing facilities, and unfair application of tax and labor laws. In conjunction with local partners in Argentina, the Justice Initiative has embarked on a project to research and document financial censorship and other indirect interferences with freedom of expression. Combining human rights research, legislative advocacy, litigation and standard-setting, this effort aims to highlight the muting effect of financial censorship, including the manipulation of government advertising in media for partisan purposes. A research matrix has been developed and a report is now under preparation.
Costa Rica: Defamation/Libel Law Reform
In May of 2004, the Justice Initiative submitted a brief as amicus curiae to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Herrera vs. Costa Rica. The case, which concerns a journalist convicted under Costa Rican criminal law for libeling a diplomat, carried important implications for free speech in the Americas. In August, the Court ruled that the conviction constituted a violation of Article 13 of the American Convention of Human Rights. In setting aside the conviction, the Court held that public officials and others who “enter the sphere of public discourse” must tolerate a greater “margin of openness to a broad debate on matters of public interest.” The judgment marked the first time that the Inter-American Court clearly embraced this fundamental principle of modern free speech law. Amicus Brief
International Media Lawyers’ Association
The Justice Initiative’s summer program training lawyers from around the world in litigating on behalf of media freedom enters its third year in 2004. For the first time, participants from Latin America will take part. The program, carried out in cooperation with Oxford University, combines broad examination of media freedom issues with a sharper focus on regional issues and mechanisms.
Mexico: Community Radios Broadcasting
In many parts of Latin America, the rights of community radio broadcasters have long been denied through arbitrary, discriminatory and exclusionary licensing practices. Mexico is no exception. In Mexico, a number of local community radio stations have for years struggled without success to obtain a license. Some applications have been consistently ignored. Other applicants have been routinely harassed by the authorities, accused of clandestine activities, and in some cases closed down. The Justice Initiative has supplied technical and legal assistance to some Mexican stations in challenging licensing refusals, resubmitting applications, negotiating with government licensing authorities and preparing for the possibility of litigation, should all other avenues of recourse prove unsuccessful.
Regional: Documenting the Chilling effect of defamation laws
We are discussing with the Inter-American Commission’s Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression a project to document the effects of criminal defamation laws on journalists and media outlets. Such a report will be used in advocacy work for law reform, and will complement the recent judgment of the Inter-American Court in the Herrera vs. Costa Rica case.
Legal Capacity Development
Mexico Fellows
In 2004, the Justice Initiative extended to Latin America its Human Rights Fellowship Program, which brings young lawyers for one year to study human rights at the Central European University in Budapest, followed by a year working in a sponsoring NGO in their home country on a Justice Initiative project. In addition, as part of our Practicing Fellows Program, a young Mexican lawyer who has previous experience both on criminal justice reform and at the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, has been recruited to work on our project promoting alternatives to pre-trial detention in Mexico.
Mexico: Clinical legal education
While legal clinics are well-established in parts of Latin America, Mexico is unusual in that, despite its long border with the U.S., there has until recently been only one live-client university-based clinic—at the law faculty of the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City. To encourage further development of clinical education in Mexico, the Justice Initiative has convened two meetings in the past year for representatives of 20 law schools in Mexico, together with experts from Argentina, Chile and the United States. As Mexican universities develop clinics, we will include Mexican teachers and clinical administrators in our annual worldwide teacher training and clinical development workshops.
Mexico: Promoting pro bono legal services
Experience in the U.S. and in several Latin American countries suggests that pro bono (volunteer) legal activities gain traction where an organizational infrastructure exists to match, and facilitate communication among, providers and consumers of legal services. In the U.S., the NGO Pro Bono Net uses a web portal and software for this purpose. In Argentina Instituto Pro Bono trains pro bono coordinators at local NGOs throughout the country. The Justice Initiative has involved Mexican lawyers in regional activities devoted to promoting pro bono work, and is devoting modest time and resources exploring with Mexican partners the possibility of drawing upon these experiences to foster enhanced pro bono legal culture in Mexico.