Santo Domingo.- The non-partisan organization, Dominican chapter of Transparency International, opposes the new policy, approved by the Judiciary as a general rule, applicable even by default, which allows the elimination or replacement of all information that may identify or make identifiable any natural person, which will help make violators of the law invisible to society, especially the corrupt. , generating impunity and greater corruption.
This measure aims to reverse the principle that transparency is the rule and privacy is the exception.
The Constitution is clear when it establishes as part of effective judicial protection and due process that trials will be public, which is not only a guarantee that protects the accused, but also society, making transparent what happens in trials, especially those of a criminal nature.
Read: SDD refuses to protect data Judiciary
The publicity of trials must include the identification of judges, prosecutors, lawyers, notaries, bailiffs, court secretaries, assistants and all related personnel, but also the parties to the process, defendants, plaintiffs, victims, civil actors, as well as well as witnesses and informants, with the appropriate exceptions to protect minors and vulnerable people.
Access to the files of judicial cases corresponds not only to the parties in the process, but to any citizen and especially to the media, in order to guarantee the right to information and free expression. Contrary to this principle, the new policy establishes restrictions for third parties, a term that includes the press and citizens.
Citizen Participation maintains that any conflict between the right to information and expression and the right to privacy must, as a general rule, be decided in favor of transparency, especially when public officials and property are involved, with due exceptions. , who must be very punctual.
According to the new regulations of the Judiciary, the list of personal data subject to anonymity is so extensive, that it includes even the identity card and electoral card, which is required to carry out multiple private operations and allows differentiating people with the same name.
This policy attempts to rely on the experience of other countries, forgetting that these countries have reached a level of institutional development, including the justice sector, that our country has not yet achieved.
Citizen Participation expresses its concern because this measure occurs at a time when the country has the great challenge of combating corruption, organized crime, as well as crimes as serious as human trafficking, money laundering, femicides and pedophilia. , which do so much damage to society.
He calls on the Judiciary to withdraw this regulation, as it is a severe blow to the efforts that broad sectors have made to remove our country from a long history of corruption and impunity.
In particular, there is concern that the data protection policy of the judiciary could serve as support for judges to prevent citizens and the press from accessing information, a fundamental achievement in a democratic regime and in countries with low levels of transparency. .
