SUPREME COURT GIVES STATEMENTS
ON FUNDAR’S PROJECT FOR STRATEGIC LAWSUITS

The Nation’s Supreme Court of Justice favors free access to justice and forbids making access to information difficult by charging high fees. This is relevant to two causes supported by Fundar in the search for judicial definitions regarding human rights.

The first declaration of the Supreme Court’s plenum, on March 29, 2007, derives from contradictory criteria between collegiate tribunals; it establishes that the certified copies required within protection trials ought to be free, thus favoring costless access to justice. Thanks to this resolution, no person who needs certified copies in order to protect himself or herself will be limited by financial motives.

Fundar’s participation in this matter began after it placed a complain-resource before a collegiate tribunal, in order to prevent that the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH) could charge around 11,000 pesos for delivering necessary documents in order to solve one of the protection trials presented against the reelection process of the president of that autonomous organism. This cause is currently followed before the Inter American Commission for Human Rights so as to defend: the right of civil organizations to participate directly in public decision making, the access to public posts with equal opportunities, as well as the right to information. The final objective is that political decisions made in future ombudsman elections do not diminish democratic legitimacy and independence from the leader of the CNDH.

The last three declarations have been obtained both from the Second and First Rooms of the Supreme Court, just these last June 20 and August 8, 2007, and with them new (and high) costs implemented by the CNDH have been avoided. This time, the latter imposed those fees as previous requirement for delivering files that several researchers supported by Fundar have requested in order to clear and analyze the work of the autonomous organism, and by using their right to information. Although the resolutions proposed to safeguard tributary securities, the truth is that they also protect from indirect obstacles to the information-access right.

 

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