92437 Improving Access to Justice in Guatemala April 24, 2006 Judicial Reform Project Background President Wolfowitz visits the mobile court - Apr. 28, 2006 The signing of the December 1996 Peace Accords  Photos | Video ended an era of 36 years of civil war in Guatemala.  With these accords, a new consensus President Wolfowitz visits Guatemala Full coverage emerged among civil society, the Government, the    Supreme Court of Justice, and other justice institutions that judicial reform is essential to post- conflict reconstruction, social stability, and    Video:   Access to Justice - Mobile Court in economic growth.  Guatemala (4MB Windows Player) The World Bank’s Judicial Reform Project supports   these aims.  Before the project was implemented,   about 30 percent of the country had no judicial branch presence. Today each municipality has at   least one justice of the peace.   Drawing lessons from Guatemala’s experience, the Bank is now also implementing judicial reform   projects in El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico.   Project objective   To create an effective, accessible, and credible justice system that applies laws consistently and   fairly, and inspires public confidence. Financing Project design Total cost : US$49.7 million The project aims to: IBRD loan amount: US$33 million Strengthen access to justice. Implementation period: Expected April Strengthen the institutional capacity of the 1999 - December 2006 Judicial Branch. Provide support to anti-corruption efforts. Geographical area: the whole country Promote communication with the public on Implementing agency: Supreme Court of justice sector reform. Justice Project activities More details Access to Justice: Full project information & documents   177 Justice of the Peace courts have been   created and implemented. One regional and one departmental justice   center have been inaugurated, and a second regional center is in progress.   Two mobile courts have been in operation since 2003. These specially equipped buses   provide free mediation, dispute resolution, and information services to people in remote areas. The service benefited over 6,000   people in its first year of operation, of which 63 percent were women.   Twenty-five mediation centers have opened and are providing mediation services in   indigenous languages.  Since 2001, more   than 22,000 disputants have sought mediation, of which almost half reached agreement. Justice sector workers are benefiting from cultural sensitivity training. Alternative dispute resolution centers have been annexed to the courts. Organizational Effectiveness: Creation of new departments and training of personnel to perform four critical tasks: planning, human resources, administrative services, and financial management. BUS - Mobile peace court in Quetzaltenango. Ethics, Professionalism and Gender Focus: The Judicial School is now equipped to provide training to judges, prosecutors, public defenders, and justice staff across the country. Anti-corruption training seminars are provided nationwide and are supported by a newly created Code of Ethics. Judges are now hired solely on the basis of competitive examinations. About 17 percent of judges are now women (and more than 50 percent of justices of the peace are women), compared with only 3 percent at project initiation. For the first time in Guatemala’s history the President of the Supreme Court is a woman. Social Communications and Citizen Outreach:   The Supreme Court is informing the public about the judicial reform process through educational materials and radio programs in Spanish and Mayan languages.  Modernization of Criminal Records Offices: 24 automated criminal record offices have been opened across the country, all of them connected via server to the database, permitting the same quality of service in all areas.  The process, which previously took an average of seven days to complete, now takes three minutes. The General Archive of Protocols office (Archivo General de Protocolos) has been automated and decentralized to two locations.  This has reduced registration time and increased revenues for the Judicial  Branch.  Next steps:  Judicial reform is a long-term process in a post- conflict society. The project has succeeded in showing incremental and sustainable improvements that promote peace and advance access to justice. However, continued efforts are needed to scale up pilot programs, further promote civil society partnerships with formal institutions, and address criminal justice challenges that fall outside the scope of this project.   April 2006