Documents and publications
Newsletter Nº 8
June 12, 2003

CONTENT:

1. FARN DEMANDED A STRONG REFORM IN THE NATIONAL
   SUPREME COURT OF THE JUSTICE
   

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FARN DEMANDED A STRONG REFORM IN THE
NATIONAL SUPREME COURT OF THE JUSTICE
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Last Thursday, June 5th, the Minister of Justice Gustavo Béliz, committed himself, before the non-governmental organizations that signed the document "A Court for Democracy", to issue a decree through which it is guaranteed that the designation of the future juries of the National Supreme Court of Justice, will be carried out in a transparent way and taking into account the opinion of the citizens.

The officer was yesterday welcomed by the Civil Rights Association (Asociación por los Derechos Civiles - ADC), Center of Legal and Social Studies (Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales - CELS), Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales - FARN), INECIP (Instituto de Estudios Comparados en Ciencias Penales y Sociales), Poder Ciudadano Foundation, and Users and Consumers Union (Union de Usuarios y Consumidores), who pointed that there exists a lack of publicity in the applicants selection's processes in order to occupy the vacant posts.

Likewise, they demanded a strong reform in the Supreme Court, which should start limiting the competition, as at present the Court must solve more than 14,000 annual cases, and this contrast with other Courts of similar status, as for example USA where there are only 90 cases in one year.

The organizations responsible for this call, are users of the judicial system, and as such, have learned that the transformations that each of them encourage (concerning access to justice, environment, transparency's control, social and civil rights, users and consumers' rights, and human rights in general), are not possible if there does not exist suitable and independent juries, and a democracy with a high institutional value.

This conjunction initiative, aims to eradicate from the policy practice, the culture of the agreement and the secret, that so much has contributed to deteriorate the institutions of the Argentinean Republic.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

   Documents "A Court for Democracy "
   Document I: http://www.farn.org.ar/docs/p19/index.html
   Document II: http://www.farn.org.ar/docs/p20/index.html

   Links Press Issues:
   ClarínNewspaper
   http://www.clarin.com/diario/hoy/p-00704.htm

   Página/12 Newspaper
   http://200.61.159.98/diario/elpais/subnotas/21081-8050.html

   La Nación Newspaper
   http://www.lanacion.com.ar/03/06/06/dp_501676.asp