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Honduras

Corruption at the court

© Mike Kollöffel

Many hondurians take matters into their own hands, because the judicial system is ineffective.

This is stated by the danish supreme court judge Thomas Rørdam efter a visit to Honduras. Together with several of DanChurchAid’s partners and three other judicial experts, he learned about the election process of judges for the hondurian supreme court.

The judges and Head of Supreme Court are appointed for a seven-year period. The so-called appointment committee is made up of seven “professional organisations” and institutions in the judicial area, which in January will appoint at least 45 candidates for the election in the congress.
”Even though this seems as a democratic process, the system they’ve created in Honduras is looking rather odd.”, Thomas Rørdam explains.
He points out, that the hondurian judicial system is so corrupted, that the establishment can block changes in the system, whenever they feel that their reign is threatened.

Division of power and subdued media

The election process for new Supreme Court judges receives harsh criticism from international experts and human rights-, anti-corruption- and judicial civil society organisations alike.
Rumuors about the two major political parties trying to influence the appointment of judges have flourished for months. The National Party and The Liberal Party are, allegedly, trying to get “their own” candidates appointed.
Traditionally the two parties have taken in turns to be in government and occupy positions of power in society in general. The hondurian media, who should act as the civil watchdog towards the establishment, are subdued. Almost all news corporations are owned by the economical and political establishment in the country.

Prosecutors on hunger strike

The Danish supreme-court judge notes, that the population seems settled into resignation towards the plague of corruption, which has brought Honduras to the 126th place out of 180 on transparency internationals global list of corruption.
”Still, extraordinary things do happen in Honduras. Recently, the public prosecutors went on hunger strike as a protest against corruption, which I would say was very dramatic. But even this does not seem to stir the population.”, Thomas Rørdam says.

”The best thing to do, is to closely monitor the current election proces, so that the appointment committee know, that there are demands to transparency and professional criteria as the basis of election of the new supreme-court judges.”
Thomas Rørdam was part of a delegation sent to Hondures by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in Geneva. DanChurchAid and some their partner organisations in Honduras supported his visit.

Good intentions, no outcome

In 2001 a new law on election of judges was passed in Honduras. The intention was to “de-politicise” the highest court instance and put an end to the meddling of the two major political parties.
In spite of this, the National Party still got eight supreme-court judges elected in 2002. The other seven judges came from the Liberal Party, who where in opposition at the time.
Any influential court rulings at the supreme-court since then have been decided with a vote of 8-7.
The election process ends in spring 2009 with the final election of 15 new judges and a president of the highest court instance of the country.