Project description

Title: Consolidating Reform of Criminal Procedure and the Judiciary
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Peru
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Justice, Supreme Court of Justice
Overall term: 2003 to 2013

Context

The Peruvian government has been making efforts to undertake major judicial reform for several years. A new law of criminal procedure was adopted in 2004, introducing the principles of ex officio prosecution and oral proceedings based on European legal concepts and comparable reform processes in Latin America. Public administration reform has also been initiated.

Although a number of positive developments have already been implemented, quality criteria associated with the rule of law are not applied consistently when legislation is drafted or interpreted by the courts. For large sections of the population, access to justice is still restricted and in general judicial practice the right to a fair trial is often not respected. In many cases there are wide gaps between legislative texts and actual practice and also between administrative law and actual administrative procedures. The consequences of this are general legal uncertainty and unequal treatment.

Objective

Quality criteria associated with the rule of law are applied in continuing judicial reform.

Approach

In the final phase of the project the focus is on working with the partner organisations to ensure that the approaches, instruments and knowledge management systems developed during the project are sustainably integrated and that the processes are institutionalised.

GIZ is supporting the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court of Justice in the following reforms:

• Carrying out training measures based on the teaching of legal methodology
• Developing quality criteria that can be used when drafting and substantiating a criminal judgement
• Analysing of and academic commentary on the jurisdiction of the criminal courts and the Inter-American Court on basic procedural rights
• Analysing of procedures and preparing of materials to increase efficiency in the judiciary and the administration as well as identifying barriers to implementation and strategies to overcome these obstacles
• Supporting vertical learning structures between the institutions involved in the reform process

Results achieved so far

• Successful introduction of the new criminal procedure
  By April 2010 the new criminal procedure had been implemented in 16 judicial districts.
• Significant improvement in the performance of the reformed criminal justice system
  The average duration of proceedings has been reduced from 600 days to less than 200 days. In addition, the proportion of prisoners who are awaiting trial has decreased from over 70 % to under 50 %.
• The Supreme Court of Justice’s focus on its core tasks
  Under the old procedure, most cases reached the Supreme Court of Justice; however, since 2007 the Supreme Court has only passed rulings on 24 cases.
• Reducing procedural backlogs
  Successful efforts have been made to reduce the backlog of criminal and civil proceedings as well as backlogs in employment and administrative disputes. 
• Strengthening the public defender system
  Between 2003 and 2009 the number of public defenders more than tripled. In addition, there have been considerable improvements in the provision of legal protection for women. In 2009, a victim protection centre was established which specialises in providing care to victims of rape and domestic violence.
• Drafting legislative initiatives
  In 2009, Congress adopted reforms regarding the right to obtain interim injunctions, retrials for proceedings that have already been concluded and working procedures. In addition, a law has been drafted to govern justices of the peace and a law concerning judges has been passed.
• Transparency in the legislative procedure
  The legislative procedure is more accessible to the civil population, who can now comment on legislative initiatives on the website of Congress’ Justice Commission.

Further information

• Local website of the programme
  Programa Gobernabilidad Democrática e Inclusión Social (Democratic Governance and Social Inclusion Programme)
  http://www.gobernabilidad.org.pe