On the 16th of March of 2013, during a hearing convened by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF), the Legal Defense Institute (Instituto de Defensa Legal) (IDL) of Peru and DeJusticia of Colombia, all members of the Regional network for Pre-Trial Justice in Latin America, denounced the pressures and interference that judges face when deciding on pre-trial detention of people accused of a crime in cases with high public and media attention. The information provided in the hearing is based on a report of four South American countries: Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina. The Center for Legal and Social Studies (Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales) (CELS) of Argentina and the Center of Law and Society (Centro Derecho y Sociedad) (CIDES) of Ecuador also participated in elaborating the report.

Other branches of government interference in the judiciary when officials publicly devalue judges for providing alternative measures to pre-trial detention arguing that it favors impunity. It also comes from the judiciary itself, whose representatives, on one hand fail to protect judges being questioned by the media or public opinion, and on the other use disciplinary mechanisms to punish judges when they apply pre-trial detention on an exceptional basis, even when the decisions are in compliance with domestic law and international standards.

In the hearing the organizations called on the Commission to make recommendations to States to establish or strengthen institutional communication policies and to avoid the use of disciplinary mechanisms as pressure-exerting tools to facilitate impartial judicial decision-making and respect of international standards and international law. They also called on the Commission to recommend the States to facilitate trainings and to design support mechanisms for judges facing situations of high social controversy in applying the rules of due process.

The Commission reiterated its interest in the subject, given the severity and extent of the pre-trial detention issue and the weaknesses of the judicial systems in the region.  It also thanked the organizations for the information that will be taken into account in the report on pre-trial detention being prepared by the IACHR’s Rapporteur of Persons Deprived of Liberty.