Caribbean & Central America - August 2022

Amid calls for the new leftist Libertad y Refundación (Libre) government led by President Xiomara Castro to make good its vote-winning pledge to combat corruption, all eyes are on the selection of the new 15-member supreme justice court (CSJ) which is due to be finalised in early 2023. The CSJ has long faced criticism amid concerns over its independence and transparency and the process of picking its successor, which is due officially be kicked off this month, is set to draw particular scrutiny.

The 128-member unicameral legislature appoints CSJ members for a seven-year term by a two-thirds majority from a list of at least 45 candidates proposed by a seven-member nominating committee. This is comprised of the ombudsman, representatives from the outgoing CSJ, the bar association, private sector lobby, law professors, civil society, and workers’ unions. With legislative president Luis Redondo due to officially convene the committee this month, various local and international rights groups as well as government members like transparency minister Edmundo Orellana are urging new rules to govern the process.

Most recently on 8 July the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Honduras issued a statement urging the adoption of a new legal framework for the nominating committee that would guarantee a transparent election. A 30 June letter to President Castro by US-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) acting Americas director Tamara Taraciuk Broner echoed these demands. Warning that the CSJ is vulnerable to “manipulation”, Taraciuk Broner underlined familiar concerns such as the fact that in practice, political parties split the 15 vacancies among themselves according to the proportion of seats they hold. Other criticisms include a lack of transparency and clear criteria plaguing the selection of lower-court judges. She urges Castro to create a new bill setting out clear criteria to ensure independence and fairness and to create a new system for the appointment and vetting of CSJ nominees.

These calls for safeguards to protect CSJ’s judicial independence and better rules and vetting procedures have been echoed by other civil-society groups such as Costa Rica-based NGO, Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and US-based NGO Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF). The latter highlighted that in recent months three legislative initiatives have been proposed aimed at strengthening the selection procedure, but the legislature has yet to confirm whether any will be adopted.

As well as the CSJ election, the attorney general (AG) is also up for re-appointment. Congress will appoint the new AG, by a two-thirds majority, from a list of five candidates prepared by a nominating committee. Its current head, Oscar Chinchilla, was re-elected for a five-year term in 2018 and notably was not on the list of five candidates that the nominating committee prepared, in breach of a constitutional provision that mandates that they be selected from that list. Along with the CSJ president Rolando Argueta, Chinchilla has come under pressure to face legal action over his handling of extradition cases. On 12 May at an international forum, Gabriela Castellanos, executive director of local civil-society group, the national anti-corruption council (CNA), dubbed the two the “duo of impunity” in Honduras. Chinchilla’s name featured in the US trial last year of former drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes, which implicated then-president Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022), who was extradited to the US in April to face drug and weapons related charges [SSR-22-05]. A US Department of Justice (DoJ) statement dated 22 March 2021 announcing the guilty verdict regarding Fuentes cites Hernández as allegedly saying that Chinchilla would “help protect” Fuentes’ drug trafficking activities.

•  HRW recommendations

In her letter Taraciuk Broner suggests introducing a bill to improve the independence of the judiciary in accordance with international standards including by: creating a judicial governance system that includes a fair, transparent and independent mechanism for disciplinary actions for judges, administered by a body separate from the CSJ and independent of external pressures; and establishing clear rules for the appointment, transfer, and promotion of judges, based on their qualifications and integrity. She also calls for legal changes, including through introduction of legislative proposals, to modify procedures for appointing CSJ justices, the attorney general, and other high officials to ensure their selection is transparent and based on clear criteria.