The Workshop on “Jurisdictional specialisation against organised crime”, held in Costa Rica, brought together senior representatives of the judicial powers of Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay (also representing the Permanent Secretariat of the Ibero-American Judicial Summit), in addition to the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (ILANUD) and, to moderate the debates, specialists from the Spanish judiciary and the French Ministry of Justice took part. 

In the exchanges, the differences between the judicial bodies of the countries represented in the Workshop were detailed, in terms of both the subject matter they prosecute and their operation. In this regard, the Workshop offered a space for collaboration and joint effort, with the aim of coordinating a “Proposal to address organised crime in Ibero-America” with the countries that make up the Ibero-American Judicial Summit . This proposal puts forward an analysis and reflection, not only from an Ibero-American perspective and especially aligned with goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals, but one that also goes beyond the criminal sphere, identifying prevention measures and cross-cutting themes of jurisdictional activity. This includes aspects associated with ethics and the minimum conditions that judges require in order to perform their tasks and thus avoid the interference of organised crime in judicial institutions. 

Among the main consensuses and results obtained in the workshop and included in the proposal drawn up, prominence is given to the importance of  “generating spaces for dialogue between the Judicial Powers, the Judicial Council and the Supreme Courts of Justice of the countries, in a joint and intersectoral manner with national, regional and Ibero-American institutions, to specify initiatives that promote communication and highlight the efforts that may be generated in favour of strengthening inter-institutional and international cooperation among the various stakeholders”. 

This proposal is also in line with some of the foundations set forth at the 27th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government in Andorra in April 2021, and the special statement on Ibero-American cooperation in the struggle against transnational organised crime, drug trafficking and human trafficking, and it is included in the Shared Justice Political Cycle, promoted by EL PAcCTO after the Lisbon Meeting in June 2021, to lay the foundations for defining operating standards of justice that respond to present and future challenges.