Piña presents comprehensive proposals for the reform of the Judicial Branch

Mexico City., “The demolition of the Judicial Branch is not the way forward,” said this Sunday the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), Norma Lucía Piña Hernández, when presenting her proposals for the reform of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (PJF) that was approved last week by the Chamber of Deputies and that today began its discussion in the Senate of the Republic.

In an unexpected three-minute message, broadcast on official PJF platforms, Piña addresses federal legislators and authorities of security and justice systems, making a “respectful but firm call” to “change things.”

“If we have the courage and the real will, we could take firm steps today to make the deep and necessary changes to build the peace, justice and reparation that Mexico so badly needs. Our history cannot be defined by the easy narrative that all the security and justice problems in the country are the fault of the judges. Those who believe this do not know Mexico,” he tells them.

In the message, Piña appears accompanied by three of her 10 fellow ministers, Juan Luis González Alcántara Carrancá, Jorge Mario Pardo Rebolledo and Luis María Aguilar Morales, and by the counselor Lilia Mónica López Benítez and the counselors José Alfonso Montalvo Martínez and Sergio Javier Molina Martínez.

“From the Federal Judicial Branch we honestly tell you that our resistance is not based on our present. Our conviction and commitment goes beyond us. It is with the generations to come and fundamentally with the country that we all long for,” he says.

The head of the PJF presented two proposals today that seek to influence the reform bill. One is the result of testimonies from thousands of people collected in the 14 national forums National Meeting for a Security and Justice Agenda; the second is born from the forums The reform in the voice of the Judiciary, prepared by judges and magistrates.

“Based on the commitment I made to citizens and national authorities, today I am putting on the table concrete proposals for a comprehensive system of public security and justice in Mexico. This proposal is based on a broad exercise of listening and dialogue with all the actors in the federal and local security and justice systems, as well as with legislators, civil society organizations, academia, students and victims of violence,” he says about the first proposal.

The second document, he explained, arises from the judiciary in a reflective and self-critical process of federal judges, magistrates, as well as personnel of the jurisdictional bodies and 11 local justice systems, whose objective is to contribute to the discussion on judicial reform from the direct experience of those who administer justice.

“Both documents fully agree with the many recommendations and decisions that have been addressed to the Mexican State by international and inter-American human rights organizations. They address and take up many of the concerns of civil society organizations, whose critical and realistic outlook is nourished day by day by their tireless work to defend vulnerable people oppressed by discrimination and violence,” he said.