Karen Palacios, from the Legal Department of the Ministry of Government, Karen Palacios, detailed this Thursday morning on Radio Panama the new requirements to be a community justice of the peace, secretary and the modernization of the Justices of the Peace, after the authorization of the Cabinet Council to the Minister of Government, Janaina Tewaney Mencomo to present before the National Assembly, the Bill 21-22 that subrogates Law 16 of 2016 that instructs the community justice of peace and other provisions are dictated.
“A consultation process was carried out practically a year ago, a process where we were in contact with all the institutions that have to do with the issue, evaluating the current situation of community justice and the result is the proposal that we presented the day yesterday before the Cabinet Council and will be elevated to the Assembly,” Palacios explained.
According to the official, currently “some of the system’s weaknesses have to do with the complaints that citizens present when a justice of the peace has committed an ethical offense or accusation, where there is a District Technical Commission that must accept these complaints, but these commissions are not formed in all the districts and this creates a vacuum in the sense that it is the entity that must resolve these cases and it does not exist”.
“Currently the requirements to be a justice of the peace, the interested person has to go through an initial course of the Administration Prosecutor’s Office, now we are proposing a training plan that also involves the Ministry of Government; in addition, the current age to be an applicant is older than 30 years and some communities tell us we don’t have any, we have lowered that age to 25 years,” he added.
Regarding the need for the justice of the peace to have knowledge in legal matters, Palacios indicated that “in the metropolitan, semi-urban and rural districts, we are establishing that the person at least has studies in law, that is, someone who is starting the career, although he has not graduated, at least he has some notions, that is not in the current Law; in addition to the ability to conciliate”.
“We will be more demanding so that the person meets these new requirements to occupy the position of Justice of the Peace and can have the proper management in the resolution of these cases”; he concluded.
