DPLF and FESPAD denounce the removal of the President of the Supreme Court as a violation of judicial independence
During the first months of 2012, there was a selection process for five new justices for the Supreme Court of El Salvador. In January 2012, DPLF organized an international mission to El Salvador to address the importance of a transparent selection process that bases the selection on candidates’ merits, as well as to present to the different actors in the process a document with guidelines on this issue, based on international comparative experiences.
These topics were also discussed during a thematic hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on March 27, 2012, requested by DPLF and FESPAD (Fundación de Estudios para la Aplicación del Derecho from El Salvador).The report can be read here .
Before the selection by the National Assembly, DPLF, FESPAD, and the Movement for Judicial Transparency sent an open letter to the Legislative Assembly, reminding it of its international obligations and the need to base the selection on the merits of the candidates. Read this letter, which was printed in La Prensa Gráfica and the Diario Co-Latino (in Spanish), here.
In spite of this call for transparency and merit-based appointments, on April 26, the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly decided to remove the President of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Chamber, Dr. Belarmino Jaime, sending him to a different chamber of the Supreme Court. This removal, especially because of the context in which it occurred, is a serious violation of judicial independence. Thus, DPLF and FESPAD issued a report denouncing the action for lacking both transparency and the possibility of civic participation in the selection process. Read this press release, which was printed in La Prensa Gráfica (in Spanish), here.