Rule of Law Initiative Programs - Ecuador

Criminal Law Reform and Human Trafficking

Strengthening the Criminal Justice System in Ecuador

View of Quito, Ecuador

In July 2006, the Latin America and the Caribbean Division began a major project to enhance the understanding of an adversarial criminal justice system in Ecuador. The US Embassy in Quito awarded the ABA 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 project 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 project has completed an assessment of criminal justice reform, held several large-scale trainings for judges, prosecutors police and has assisted in trainings for computerized courts management systems and financial crimes trainings. The project will grow to include trainings at the judicial acedamy for new judges and a course in the adversarial system for law students.

 

Visit the project’s Spanish-language website at www.justiciapenalecuador.org.

For more information, please contact Charles Caruso at <carusoch@staff.abanet.org>.

 

Seminars on New Criminal Procedure Code

2008 Puerto Rico Study tour for the Mediation Project

Since July 2005, this project 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 to make their criminal justice reform have more success. During the week-long tour the participants met with judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers and, at the conclusion of their visit, they witnessed various court proceedings (arraignments, pre-trials, and trials). Additionally, a John Larsen, a 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 project 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 project included a seminar in Ecuador on ways to improve the collection of evidence in criminal cases and continues through the strengthening the criminal justice system project.

 

Trafficking in Persons in Ecuador

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 has led a Project to Combat Trafficking in Persons in Ecuador with funds from the US Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons office.  During the project, the Rule of Law Initiative has worked with Ecuador’s government and NGO community 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 State Department’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 State Department first evaluated it in 2004.

A billboard put up by the ABA’s Project to Combat Trafficking in Persons in Ecuador tells viewers: “The lives of children don’t have a price. Trafficking in persons is punished with up to 35 years in prison.”

International organizations have lauded several of the Project’s strategies.  In its 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report, the US Department of State cited the Project’s communication campaign as an international best practice.  The Organization of American States named the Project as a hemispheric partner in the fight against trafficking and has called the Project’s tool kit of anti-trafficking materials a best practice in the Americas.

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.

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>.

 

US Embassy in Ecuador Conference on Trafficking in Persons

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 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 NGO 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 NGO, 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 (SORED) 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 project in Ecuador. The ABA Trafficking in Persons in Ecuador Project has been working with this blueprint.

 

 

 

 

 

Human Rights and Conflict Mitigation

Public Service Announcements (PSA's) on Human Rights

Public service announcement produced in Ecuador regarding the rights of children.

The ABA 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