Dina Boluarte presented this week bill 9297, with the proposal that the Council for the Reform of the Justice System be conducted in a manner non-delegable for the presidency of the Republic. The initiative is questioned by the current context of the search for impunity and attempts to take over the justice operating institutions from political actors.
He Council for the Reform of the Justice System was created in May 2019, during the government of Martín Vizcarra. The objective was to promote the necessary reforms in justice policies and accompany their implementation.
This body had an active role until the administration of the former president Francisco Sagasti. In said period, and with Violeta Bermudez At the head of the ministerial cabinet, the Executive Branch and the members of the council achieved the approval of the public policy to reform the justice system, in July 2021.
When Pedro Castillo assumes the presidency, the Council for the Reform of the Justice System took a backseat. There was no call for the sessions, despite the fact that Law 30942 establishes a minimum meeting for each month.
Although there was apathy from the political power, the technical teams continued with the process and the approved policy has progress in the order of 30%, according to sources from the Ministry of Justice. From the technical spaces, the proposal now is to articulate this management instrument with the CEPLAN (National Center for Strategic Planning).
Dina Boluarte reactivated the operation of the Council for the Reform of the Justice System. There was a first session in January of this year and it was on that occasion that the heads of the Ombudsman’s Office (Josué Gutiérrez) and the Comptroller’s Office (Nelson Shack) proposed changes to the law on composition.
The proposals for change
According to a statement released yesterday by the Ministry of Justicedefender Gutiérrez and comptroller Shack proposed that the leadership of the Council for the Reform of the Justice System be in charge of the presidency of the Republic of non-delegable way.
This is a substantial change, since currently the presidency of the aforementioned council rotates each year. That is, the heads of the Judiciary, the Public Ministry, the National Board of Justice, the Comptroller’s Office, the Ombudsman’s Office and even Congress could also preside over it.
Dina Boluarte’s project includes another modification so that the technical secretariat of the council is in charge of the Ministry of Justice, which depends on the Palace. (In practice, since 2021, this ministerial sector already performs the functions of technical secretariat, by agreement of the members of the reform council body).
Inopportune timing
Asked about the issue, the parliamentarian Ruth Luque considered that we would be facing a new attempt to concentrate power, with respect to a key sector that is justice.
“Everything is going to be concentrated in the Executive Branch and the Ministry of Justice, which has not shown any key position to guarantee an adequate balance, in the face of decisions that have been hitting the justice system by Congress,” he commented.
The parliamentarian did not rule out that the president may be orchestrating with the majority of Congress to impose a new justice system.
Cruz Silva, lawyer from the Legal Defense Institute, maintained that, in the current situation, there are no conditions for a modification in relation to the leadership of the Council for the Reform of the Justice System. “Less, if some type of reform is intended to be carried out on the justice system,” he warned.
“We have seen initiatives from Parliament that, without objection from the Executive, have aimed to eliminate institutions such as the National Board of Justice and to defenestrate the supreme prosecutors with constitutional complaints or to transfer the powers of the Public Ministry to the police,” he questioned.
The IDL specialist emphasizes that now is not the time to promote reforms in the justice system, even less in the current context in which political actors obey particular interests and, many of them with investigations.
