Bill 129.

Summary.

The bill provides for the special community justice jurisdiction to operate at first instance through community judges, district community judges and community mediators, and at second instance through higher community judges. It requires support from entities specializing in alternative dispute resolution, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministerio Público), the Office of the Attorney General for the Administration (Procuraduria de la Administración) and the Judicial Branch (Órgano Judicial), within their respective powers. The Community Justice Directorate (Dirección De Justicia Comunitaria) and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Directorate (Dirección Resolución Altema De Conflictos) would keep statistics on cases heard and referred. Judges would submit anonymous quarterly reports and send final judgments for major community offenses to the Criminalistics Section of the National Police (Policía Nacional), allowing checks of records and repeat offending over the past ten years when imposing provisional measures and sanctions.

Community justice would follow principles of cultural diversity, procedural speed, informality, equality, independence, impartiality, oral proceedings, accountability, transparency and human rights. Representation by a lawyer would be optional. Services would be free, except for documents, copies and certificates, subject to legally granted free access or a judicial exemption. Only the office could record oral proceedings; recording by parties or participants would be punishable as contempt. The houses would have equipment to digitize proceedings, with support from the Government Innovation Authority (Autoridad de Innovación Gubernamental). Judges would preserve confidentiality and ensure that both sides could be heard. The bill defines summonses and other judicial orders, bonds, community offenses, contempt, judicial approval of agreements, mediation, conciliation and restorative practices. It distinguishes the roles of legally qualified and non-lawyer judges, district and higher judges, mediators, observers and follow-up officers; it also defines the roles of Community Police (Policía Comunitaria), municipal police and neighborhood watch residents.

Each corregimiento (district) in metropolitan and urban municipalities would have a daytime community justice house and a permanent judge. In semiurban and rural municipalities, the Community Justice Advisory Commission (Comisión Consultiva de Justicia Comunitaria) could establish or merge houses according to dispute levels, distance, population and social conditions. The Community Justice Directorate (Dirección de Justicia Comunitaria) would provide the classification of districts and corregimientos. The Ministry of Security (Ministerio de Seguridad) would assign police support in accordance with the Constitution (Constitución), the Organic Law of the National Police (Ley Orgánica de la Policía Nacional) and human rights. Each house would have judicial, mediation, inspection, records, follow-up and support staff; it could receive additional personnel, an observer from the District Technical Commission (Comisión Técnica Distrital) and assessments from a team appointed by the Communal Boards (Juntas Comunales). At least one vehicle per district is envisaged. Judges would allocate duties, assess staff and impose or recommend sanctions; the advisory commission would prepare the applicable sanctions schedule.

Operating resources would form part of the budget of the National Decentralization Authority (Autoridad Nacional de Descentralización), through the Community Justice Directorate, and would be spent by mayors and Communal Boards under fiscal controls. Diversion of those funds would entail administrative, civil and criminal consequences. A special commission, including representatives of the Ministry of Government and Justice (Ministerio de Gobierno y Justicia), the Decentralization Authority (Autoridad de Descentralización), the Office of the Comptroller General (Contraloría General de la República), the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas) and others, would establish the pay scale. The service would be free and continuous, with daytime, evening, overnight, weekend and holiday shifts. On-duty judges would hear matters assigned to those hours, subject to exceptions for maintenance proceedings and proceedings under article 52. Where non-lawyer judges serve, legally qualified district judges would decide cases requiring a ruling under law. The community judge would direct the house and apply articles 13 and 14 of the Civil Code (Código Civil) on a supplementary basis. The title proposes repealing Law 16 of June 17, 2016. The content could affect municipalities, justice bodies, security services, community justice staff and service users.