The agreements are contained in the Declaration of Santo Domingo signed by the representatives of the Judiciary Branches of Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico and Guatemala.
The presidents of the Supreme Courts of Justice who participated in the Ordinary Meeting of the Central American and Caribbean Judicial Council (CJCC) signed the Declaration of Santo Domingo, which includes the agreements reached at that meeting, and which establishes that the Dominican Judicial Branch should propose an articulated and participatory roadmap to promote a strategic role for the region's judiciaries.
The proposal will be analyzed at the next meeting convened by this organization, which will rethink the challenges of the present for the justice of the future with a view to identifying issues of interest and creating specialized working groups, where these topics can be addressed in a comprehensive manner, sharing knowledge, best practices and promoting the exchange of experiences that can be replicated by the judiciaries throughout the region.
In the context of the meeting, Presiding Judge Luis Henry Molina Peña assumed as presidentpro tempore for the period 2023-2024 of the CJCC, whose command was handed over to him by his counterpart from Puerto Rico, Maite D. Oronoz Rodríguez.
The Santo Domingo declaration also approved the holding of an extraordinary meeting of the Council to be held in person from August 23 to 26, 2023 in the Republic of Panama, at which the subsidiary bodies and the Specialized Working Groups (SWG) are expected to present their management reports.
It was approved to extend, through the pro tempore presidency of the Dominican Republic, an invitation to countries of the Central American and Caribbean region to participate in the Special Meeting of the Council to be held in person on August 23-26, 2023 in the Republic of Panama.
In the Declaration of Santo Domingo, the participating countries recorded the reflections expressed by the presiding judges of the Supreme Courts members of the CJCC, in order to strengthen this space for coordination and exchange.
Finally, it was approved to select the Supreme Court of Justice of Panama to host the pro tempore presidency of the Central American and Caribbean Judicial Council for the period 2024-2025 and as an alternate venue to the Supreme Court of Guatemala, the country that will hold the pro tempore presidency for the following period.
The interest expressed by the presidents of the CJCC member countries in rethinking the challenges facing the justice system of the future with a view to identifying best practices in an integrated approach to solving them was also noted.
The Declaration of Santo Domingo was signed by the presidents of the Judicial Branches of the Republic of Costa Rica, Orlando Aguirre Gómez; El Salvador, Oscar Alberto López Jerez; Guatemala, Silvia Patricia Valdés Quezada; Honduras (country that holds the Permanent Secretariat of the Central American and Caribbean Judicial Council), Rebeca Lizette Ráquel Obando, represented by Roy Pineda Castro; Nicaragua, Magistrate Alba Luz Ramos Vanegas; Panama, María Eugenia López Arias; from the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, Maite D. Oronoz Rodríguez; and for the Dominican Republic, Luis Henry Molina Peña.
From the observer countries, the United Mexican States, Lilia Mónica López Benítez, representing Norma Lucía Piña Hernández; Cuba, Rubén Remigio Ferro; and Mrs. Shanida Jaén Viluce representing the General Secretariat of the Central American Integration System (SICA).
