News
Ecuadorian Jurists Gain Knowledge About U.S. Legal System
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) hosted a week-long study tour for a 17-judge Ecuadorian delegation. The purpose of the late October visit to Houston, Texas, was to allow the judges to observe multiple components of the U.S. criminal justice system and to support their understanding of, and involvement in, Ecuador’s transition to an accusatorial system. In addition, the trip was designed to foster relationships between U.S. and Ecuadorian legal professionals. Read more »»
Ecuador podcast: Criminal Procedure Code Reform
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) implements a program to strengthen the criminal justice system in Ecuador, which is funded by the U.S. Embassy’s Narcotics Affairs Section. In this Spanish-language podcast of a June 2009 interview, Carlos Arrobo, deputy director of the program, gives an overview of the Criminal Procedure Code reform component of the program, its significance for the criminal justice system in Ecuador and the achievements to date. Read more »»
Ecuadorian Criminal Justice Reform Efforts Marked by Renewed Support
Criminal justice reform efforts in Ecuador have received unprecedented levels of support from in-country stakeholders in recent months. For many years, the issue of criminal justice reform received little or no assistance from the public sector, resulting in a deficient justice system. But now, various criminal justice sector organizations are actively participating in—and even leading—the reform process. These emergent leaders are a testament to the nation’s dedication to reform and are indicative of reform efforts’ forward momentum. Read more »»
ABA ROLI Promotes a More Robust Accusatorial System in Ecuador
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) continues its multi-disciplinary approach to promoting improved understanding of the accusatorial system in Ecuador. More than 200 representatives from the prosecutor’s office, the National Judicial Council and the judicial police in Cuenca, Quito and Guayaquil attended three conferences held in August. The event was part of a series of conferences to better prepare judges, prosecutors and police for participation in oral trials, as mandated by the Criminal Procedure Code of 2000. Read more »»
Programs
Public Service Announcements (PSA's) on Human Rights
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) has prepared five PSA's regarding the basic rights of children under the Ecuadorian Constitution. Many think that Ecuador has one of the most advanced constitutions of any country in Latin America or the world; but, due to inherent inequalities in the political system, few people are aware of the basic rights that they are guaranteed under the constitution. Because they are made with animation and designed to run during children’s programming, the PSA's are designed to teach children (and adults watching with them) their rights according to Ecuadorian law. The PSA's are focused particularly on the rights of children including the right to an education, the right to be part of a family (having a last name from one's own father or mother can be an issue, especially for indigenous children) and the right to play. The PSA’s will run throughout Ecuador in May and June 2007 and will reach the entire nation.
Video Clips: View the public service announcements on Human Rights in Ecuador
Strengthening the Criminal Justice System in Ecuador
In July 2006, the Latin America and Caribbean Division began a major program to enhance the understanding of an adversarial criminal justice system in Ecuador. The U.S. Embassy in Quito awarded the ABA ROLI a large multi-year grant to carry out criminal justice procedure trainings throughout the nation. Like several countries in the region, Ecuador has switched from an inquisitorial justice system to a more adversarial one. While the changes in the criminal code have been made, the professional culture remains tied to the older system and practitioners lack basic information about adversarial systems of justice. The program includes training of police, judges and prosecutors, and outreach to the larger judicial and legal community in Ecuador, so that reforms already carried out have practical meaning in the everyday operation of the criminal justice system. The program has completed an assessment of criminal justice reform, held several large-scale trainings for judges, prosecutors and police, and has assisted in trainings for computerized courts management systems and financial crimes trainings.The program will grow to include trainings at the judicial academy for new judges and a course in the adversarial system for law students.
Visit the program’s Spanish-language website at www.justiciapenalecuador.org.
Seminars on New Criminal Procedure Code
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| 2008 Puerto Rico Study tour for the Mediation Project |
Since July 2005, this program has been working with Ecuadorian judges and prosecutors on issues regarding the changes that Ecuador has made in its criminal procedures by switching from an inquisitorial system to an adversarial one. A group of Ecuadorian judges, defense lawyers and prosecutors traveled in 2005 and 2008 to Puerto Rico on a study tour to witness how a hybrid legal system (mixture of the civil law system and the common law system) can function in a Spanish-speaking, Latin American setting. The tour was very successful in focusing the Ecuadorian participants on the changes they need to make for a more successful criminal justice reform. During the week-long tour the participants met with judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers and, at the conclusion of their visit, they witnessed various court proceedings (arraignments, pre-trials, and trials). Additionally, John Larsen, former FBI agent and an expert in forensics has given seminars to Ecuadorian police and prosecutors on the importance of careful evidence collection in an adversarial system. This program has opened up a number of basic issues of criminal procedure and the need for a better understanding among Ecuadorian prosecutors and judges of how much their system has changed with the switch from inquisitorial to adversarial procedures. The program included a seminar in Ecuador on ways to improve the collection of evidence in criminal cases and continues through the strengthening of the criminal justice system program.
Trafficking in Persons in Ecuador
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| A billboard in Guayaquil, Ecuador warns traffickers that Ecuador’s tough new anti-trafficking legislation can lead to 35 years in prison for trafficking children for sexual exploitation. |
From 2004 to 2007, the ABA ROLI has led a Project to Combat Trafficking in Persons in Ecuador with funds from the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons office. During the project, ABA ROLI has worked with Ecuador’s government and non-governmental organizations to disseminate knowledge about human trafficking and to mobilize the Ecuadorian government and citizenry to combat the problem.
The Project’s successes include:
In 2006, Ecuador rose to tier two in the U.S. Department of State's annual trafficking in persons report, by-passing tier two Watch. Countries are ranked tier one, tier two, tier two watch, and tier three. Until 2006, Ecuador had been a tier three country since the Department of State first evaluated it in 2004.
International organizations have lauded several of the project’s strategies. In its 2006 trafficking in persons report, the U.S. Department of State cited the project’s communication campaign as an international best practice. The Organization of American States named the project a hemispheric partner in the fight against trafficking.
The project completed the first assessment of Ecuador’s social services capacity to respond to the needs of rescued victims of trafficking. The resulting report allowed the project to move swiftly to identify potential partners and to support the transition of existing shelters to assist victims of trafficking.
US Embassy in Ecuador Conference on Trafficking in Persons
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| At a bus terminal in Quito, a billboard produced by the ABA Project to Combat Trafficking in Persons encourages trafficking victims and witnesses to trafficking to contact emergency operators |
On June 30 and July 1, 2004 the Latin America and Caribbean Division of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), in collaboration with the Supreme Court of Ecuador and the National Council of the Judiciary, sponsored a conference titled, Trafficking in Persons in Ecuador: The Problem and Appropriate Responses. The conference was funded by the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador.
Among the characteristics that set this conference apart from the onset was the strong commitment and recognition by all of the sponsoring institutions that the problem of trafficking in persons is a responsibility shared by all countries and governments no matter whether the countries involved are source, destination or transit countries. Likewise, the sponsoring institutions recognized the importance of having non-governmental organizations' involvement in the organization of the conference and thus brought in Fundacion Red para la Solidaridad Social as logistical coordinators.
Additional experts were invited to discuss the international panorama. Carmen Rosa Hernandez, Director del Departamento de Niñez, Adolescencia y Familia de la Suprema Corte de Justicia of the Dominican Republic, delivered the keynote address. In addition, a distinguished international group of experts participated including representatives from Renacer, a Colombian non-governmental organization, Casa Alianza in Costa Rica, the Johns Hopkins University Protection Project participated in and led panels at the conference. Other speakers at the conference included a U.S. federal prosecutor and an independent consultant with considerable experience in Central America, Bolivia and Brazil. The day concluded with the Ecuadorian perspective presented by representatives from Fundacion Red para la Solidaridad Social and the Consejo Nacional para las Mujeres.
The first day of the conference was devoted primarily to information sharing. The second day was devoted to three key objectives: 1) generating ideas and brain storming sessions, 2) strategies to apply, and 3) specific activities that could be undertaken in the future to strengthen Ecuador’s battle against trafficking in persons. The results from the entire exercise determined a blue print for the development of a national plan for the ABA ROLI program in Ecuador. The ABA ROLI anti-trafficking in persons program in Ecuador has been working with this blueprint.
For more information about the project and to find its toolkit of web-based materials, please see www.trataecuador.org or contact Tom Hare at <thare@staff.abanet.org>.
Al AmadoCountry Director World Trade Center, Torre B, #706
Avenida 12 de octubre 1942 y Cordero
Quito, Ecuador
Phone: +593-2-223-9102
Email: aamado@staff.abanet.org
Background
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) Latin America and Caribbean Division began to have contact with Ecuadorian government officials about training judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys on the new adversarial justice system in 2003.
Like many other nations in Latin America, Ecuador has recently changed its system from a traditionally inquisitorial criminal justice system to a more adversarial one. The transition has led to questions about how adversarial systems operate. ABA ROLI is now carrying out a large program to address these needs.
In 2004, as Ecuador's severe human trafficking problem began to draw more international attention, ABA ROLI held a conference on the issue in Cuenca with the support of the U.S. Embassy. Soon after that conference, ABA ROLI received a multi-year grant to begin working on an anti-human trafficking initiative from the U.S. Department of State's Trafficking in Persons Office.
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