Costa Rica · 5 December, 2019

Towards a Costa Rican open justice public policy based on transparency, access, participation and collaboration

Civil society organisations and institutions of the Costa Rican Judicial Authority co-create the Open Justice Policy communication strategy.

Carlos Campos, president of Safe Territories, a public organisation in Costa Rica, got up at three o’clock in the morning to travel from Alajuela to San José to the workshop held by the National Commission for the Improvement of the Administration of Justice (CONAMAJ) to co-create the Open Justice Policy communication strategy, organised jointly with the EU EUROsociAL+ Programme. His effort reflects his commitment to his country. “Public participation is not a consultation, it is participation in decision making, which is both our right and our obligation.”

He is accompanied by his companions Damarys Vigot and Claudia Flores, women who are leading citizen empowerment processes in their communities by implementing a method that has seen them manage to generate 450 safe territories in 24 cantons around the country.

Along with other organisations in the country, they go to make up the Open Justice Working Group, one of the participation spaces that has led to the Open Justice Policy of the Costa Rican Judicial Authority. This is a pioneer policy at regional level in Latin America.

EUROsociAL+ is accompanying the Costa Rican Judicial Authority and the National Commission for the Improvement of the Administration of Justice (CONAMAJ) to progressively implement the Open Justice Policy to make it possible to manage judicial services based on the principles of transparency, participation and collaboration. Several activities were carried out in 2018 and 2019 for this purpose, one of which involved the design of the Open Justice Policy Action Plan.

In the second half of this year the programme is supporting the co-creation of the Open Justice communication strategy through the accompaniment of Laura Cárdenas, the communication expert. At present, the civil society organisations that make up the Open Justice Board, youth organisations and all the institutions that comprise the Costa Rican Judicial Authority, including the Criminal Court, the Public Ministry and the Public Defender’s Office, among others, are participating in its diagnosis, strategy and monitoring and evaluation system.

Open Justice represents a paradigm shift in public management and requires innovative communication strategies. The lack of understanding of what the Open Justice Policy is can undermine the efforts and commitments included in the Open Justice Policy approved by the Judicial Authority. Accordingly, it is necessary that judicial institutions’ stakeholders, particularly judges, magistrates, prosecutors, defenders and the public officials in all these institutions, as well as members of civil society organisations, academia and journalists be the target public for the different communication, awareness and training actions.

Partnerships with institutions and civil society organisations, innovative communication formats, identification of alternative media, the use of youth participation and leadership spaces were just some of the ideas that came out of several workshops held with the institutions and civil society organisations from 11 to 13 November in San José, Costa Rica.

 

Country: Costa Rica
SDG: No poverty, Gender equality, Reduced inequalities, Peace, justice and strong institutions, Partnerships for the goals
Policy area: Democratic governance policies