Client: U.S. Agency for International Development
Duration: 2020-2025
Region: Latin America and the Caribbean
Country: Mexico
Solutions: Governance
Over the last 10 years, the Government of Mexico introduced major reforms to improve the effectiveness, transparency, accessibility, and fairness of its criminal justice. However, its implementation has proceeded slowly and unevenly at the national and state levels. The lack of results of the reform and continued levels of impunity throughout Mexico have reduced citizen confidence in the government and called into question the legitimacy of the justice system. With high levels of violence and organized crime, and more than 30,000 homicides in 2019 alone, it is imperative that Mexican justice sector actors and citizens work together to make their communities safer and to ensure the rule of law is enforced. While the challenges are immense, there are opportunities as some states have shown a commitment to advancing the justice reform process and are eager to make progress toward reducing impunity and improving trust in their state-level institutions.
The Programa para el Fortalecimiento de Instituciones de Justicia Penal Estatal (ConJusticia) consolidates and sustains recent justice system reforms by supporting state-level attorneys general offices and justice courts, with an emphasis on promoting collaboration and durable partnerships between these entities and other justice sector and local actors. These mutually supportive partnerships will enhance Mexico’s capacity to prosecute high-priority crimes—including high-impact and serious crimes—and reduce impunity.
Alongside our subcontractors Fortis, Rapid Results Institute, and the Metropolitan Group, DAI is ensuring that ConJusticia works with engaged, committed local partners, adapting our assistance to their particular needs as those needs change over time. In consultation with these state-level justice actors and community stakeholders, we will define project interventions that are responsive to their level of capacity and in line with their political will so that ConJusticia’s activities are more likely to be viable, locally owned, and sustainable.
After five years, ConJusticia, in close coordination with other U.S. Agency for International Development activities, will deliver a marked improvement in prosecution rates of high-level, serious, and high-priority crimes that will result in improved citizen perceptions regarding the justice sector’s ability to address crime and violence and protect the most vulnerable.
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