Vance Center Convenes Workshop Series on Protecting Judicial Independence in Latin America

The Vance Center and the Central American Federation of Judges for Democracy (FECAJUD) — with funding from the National Endowment for Democracy — organized a workshop series for judges on regional and international mechanisms to protect judicial independence in Latin America, in continuation of the Vance Center’s multi-faceted initiative. 

In four sessions in January and February, various international experts guided participants through processes of the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights, including precautionary measures, merits petitions, in loco visits, thematic hearings, and reports. Experts also presented and answered participants’ questions about U.N. human rights system mechanisms, including Human Rights Council instruments.  

The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Prof. Margaret Satterthwaite, provided introductory remarks for the first workshop. Other expert presenters included Prof. Douglass Cassel, special counsel to the Vance Center, and Dr. Diego García Sayán, a former judge of the Inter-American Court and former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers. 

“This workshop has greatly strengthened the work that we judges do to protect judicial independence by learning from first-class speakers [about] the mechanisms available to us,” said Judge Haroldo Vásquez, President of FECAJUD. 

The Vance Center developed the workshop series in response to requests from judges, who had expressed a desire to better understand the extent and limits of the different regional and universal instruments and how to activate them. In a sign of the relevance and interest in the subject, more than 200 attendees from 18 countries participated in the workshop series. 

The Vance Center plans to publish a manual, “Protecting Judicial Independence in the Inter-American and Universal Systems,” incorporating key findings and questions from these sessions and relying on additional research by Mexican law firm Von Wobeser.