New committee created to evaluate NSJP implementation

08/18/14 — Mexico’s Interior Ministry (Secretaría de Gobernación, SEGOB) recently announced the creation of a new committee that will regularly evaluate and monitor the implementation efforts of the new criminal justice system (Nuevo Sistema de Justicia Penal, NSJP). The Evaluation and Monitoring Committee (Comté de Evaluación y Seguimiento de la Implementación del NSJP) will report directly to Mexico’s NSJP Coordination Council (Consejo de Coordinación), delivering a bi-annual summary on their findings. According to El Universal, “The purpose of the committee is to generate, process, and analyze information to measure the efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of the implementation of the criminal justice system, in order to strengthen the decision-making process of the institutions and leaders in federal organizations and at the federal level.” The Council also approved eight other justice reform measures when it approved the creation of the Committee in July, including the creation of a working group at the local level to assist in accelerating the NSJP implementation.

The agreement to create the Committee, which was passed in the Coordination Committee’s XII Session Meeting on July 14, 2014, was published in Mexico’s Official Journal of the Federation (Diario Oficial de la Federación, DOF) in the first week of August. As it explains, the group will be made from representatives from each of the following entities: the Legal Executive Office (Consejería del Ejecutivo Federal), the Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados), the Senate (Senado), the Supreme Court (Suprema Corte de Justicia Nacional, SCJN), the Federal Judiciary Council (Consejo de la Judicatura Federal, CJF), the Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR), the National Conference of Attorney Generals (Conferencia Nacional de Procuración de Justicia), the National Security Commission (Comisión Nacional de Seguridad, CNS), and from the academic and civil society organizations, among others. The representatives must be “distinct persons” with an “expert profile,” and “with experience related to the generating of statistical information, indicators, and measures, among others, to be able to adequately and efficiently track the implementation of the [new justice] system,” reads the agreement. For his part, Alejandro Martí, a well-known human rights activist and founder of the México S.O.S. organization, was already named as the representative for civil societies.

The creation of the new monitoring committee will likely appease critics who have long called for more stringent tracking measures of the NSJP’s implementation. With less than two years remaining until the criminal justice system is required to be fully operational nationwide, the NSJP Coordination Council hopes the committee will help keep those efforts on track as there is still plenty to be done. According to Reforma, “to date, only three states have the justice system fully operational with oral trials (State of Mexico, Chihuaha, and Morelos); another 13 partially operational; 12 more will begin operating in the coming months; and the remaining four (Federal District, Michoacán, Campeche, and Sonora) won’t start until 2015 and 2016.”

Sources:

Notimex. “Dan a conocer acuerdos para aplicar Nuevo Sistema de Justicia Penal.” Uniradio Informa. August 6, 2014.

Redacción. “Crean comté para evaluar reforma penal.” Reforma. August 6, 2014.

El Universal. “Publican acuerdos para implementación del Sistema de Justicia.” Vanguardia. August 7, 2014.