Background
The Conference of Ministers of Justice of Ibero-American Countries (COMJIB) dates back to the signing of a document known as the “Acta de Madrid” in 1970, during a meeting of the Ministers of Justice of the region. After a period during which the Conference acted as an informal structure of collaboration between the Ibero-American Ministers of Justice, it was finally institutionalized in 1992, by means of the adoption of the “Tratado de Madrid”, under which it was granted due legal capacity.
The COMJIB received a significant boost in 2006 on becoming an “exemplary organization for the promotion of public policies regarding justice”, as well as by introducing the holding of plenary sessions of the Ministers of Justice once every two years. As its general objective, the Conference pursues the improvement of Justice in the Ibero-American region, by promoting the formation of public policies to be applied by the Member States and the forming of regional and sub-regional alliances as a tool for the building of a more unified juridical space.
To date, 12 of the 21 countries in the region have ratified the Constitutive Treaty, which finally came into force on 1 September 1998. In order to reinforce the Conference’s structures, at its 15th Plenary Session, held in the city of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria in 2006, members decided to sign an Acuerdo de Sedeor Host Agreement with Spain, and this finally came to pass in November 2007.
With the same purpose in view, in June 2007 the Cooperation Framework Agreement was signed by the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and the Conference of Ministers of Justice of Ibero-American Countries (COMJIB), and some internal operating regulations were drawn up and approved at the “16th Conference of Ministers of Justice of Ibero-American Countries” held in the city of San José (Costa Rica) on 18 and 19 September 2008.
Since March 2007, the Conference has enjoyed stable funding from the voluntary contribution of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, through the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development, in addition to the fees paid by the member countries. In 2010, during the Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, the COMJIB and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation reinforced their collaboration by formalizing it through a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Spanish Secretary of State for Cooperation and the General Secretary of the COMJIB.
Over the last few years, the COMJIB has also signed important agreements with other organizations and institutions, such as: the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), EUROJUST, the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders(ILANUD), La Redde Capacitación de los Ministerios Públicos y Fiscales Iberoamericanos [Capacity Building Network of Latin American Public Ministers] (RECAMPI), the European Judicial Network (EJN), la Junta Federalde Cortes y Superiores Tribunales de Justicia de las Provincias Argentinas y Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires[“Federal Board of Higher and Lower Courts of Justice of the Argentine Provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires”] (JUFEJUS),and the Foundation of the Distance Learning Centre for Economic and Technological Development (CEDDET Foundation).
Since the 15th plenary session, the Conference has been developing areas of activity concerning processes for judicial reform:
· access to Justice,
· new technologies,
· gender violence,
· transnational organized crime,
· international judicial cooperation
At the 16th Conference of Ministers of Justice of Ibero-American Countries, it was agreed that as well as working along the previously established lines, it would also be advisable to address the areas of:
· reform of Justice,
· criminal and civil reform,
· strengthening the rights of citizens during trial; the quality and transparency of trials,
· reform of the penitentiary systems and policies for combating impunity; strengthening of security and Justice.
At the 17th Conference of Ministers of Justice of Ibero-American Countries, held in Mexico City on 21 and 22 October 2010, some important agreements were adopted, and recommendations and working papers approved with the aim of promoting and enhancing justice-related public policies within the Ibero-American territories.
In accordance with this, the following areas of activity were approved:
- Promotion of the creation of an Ibero-American Access to Justice Program, which was finally approved at the Mar del Plata Summit in Argentina in December 2010.
- Organized Crime: At the Ministers’ Plenary Session recommendations were approved for starting legislative harmonization processes regarding four offences for which one single crime type was agreed upon: trafficking of human beings, illicit association, money laundering and drug trafficking. For 2011 we plan to start harmonization proposals for cyber crime and the corruption of civil servants. Furthermore, the generation of agreements at Ibero-American level for the creation of joint investigation teams (already in progress at Mercosur level) in addition to the possible extension of the Convention on Simplified Extradition, currently signed by Argentina, Brazil, Spain and Portugal, will also be fostered.
- New technologies for the Administration of Justice. This area has three different lines:
o Videoconferencing: at the Mar del Plata Summit in December 2010 the Ibero-American Convention on the Use of Videoconferencing in international cooperation between justice systems was signed by 13 countries. This is a significant milestone in a sphere in which regulation is an indispensable requirement for facilitating the introduction of this technology, so obviously vital for justice in a situation increasingly characterised by the transnationalization of legal proceedings.
o Ibero-American e-Justice Portal: This Portal was launched at the same Plenary Session; this is the first of its kind to exist, even preceding the EU e-justice portal, still in development.
o The “Paper–free Court”: This initiative, already implemented in Costa Rica thanks to a technology transfer from Portugal, could be introduced in Peru, Córdoba in Argentina or El Salvador.
- Reform of the penitentiary systems. This area is divided into two sub-areas: Human Rights in prisons and alternative measures to prison. The former has taken the form of the approval of a Declaration of Minimum Human Rights Guarantees in Prisons, which protects the prison population’s right to work, to health and to education. This year we intend to implement it, as well as continuing to support the Género en Prisión Program, which is being implemented in Paraguay and Guatemala, with Argentina as the transferring country. We will continue to make progress with regard to Alternative Measures to Prison, focusing on the electronic bracelet; this technology has been transferred by Portugal to the Dominican Republic and Colombia. Several other countries, like Costa Rica or Peru, are also interested.
- In addition to these areas, another of the COMJIB’s objectives is to continue to develop the Ibero-American Justice Observatory, which provides statistical data and good practices for the justice institutions of the region. This Observatory has already been activated on the COMJIB website.
- The COMJIB, in collaboration with the SEGIB, also intends to take steps to foster “Juridical security and business climate”, in response to increasing demands by the Ministries for improvements in the sphere of justice in order to encourage investment and business initiatives.
- Finally, IberRed‘s secure communications system, called Iber@,was presented.