Yucatán went from 14th to fourth place in the Rule of Law Index, according to WJP

Mérida, Yucatán, (November 15, 2021).- In one year, Yucatán went from ranking 14th to fourth in the Rule of Law Index in Mexico 2020-2021 of the World Justice Project (WJP), an independent international organization that works to advance the Rule of Law in the world. 

It means that the quality and effectiveness of the criminal justice system in Yucatán made notable progress in the midst of the pandemic, as highlighted by the Judicial Power of the State of Yucatán in a statement. 

This November 15th will mark the first 10 years of the beginning of the oral and adversarial criminal system in the state, and within the framework of this celebration, highlighted in the results of a national ranking that measures the quality and effectiveness of criminal justice. 

According to the judicial body, while 16 states of the country fell in this measurement, Yucatan registered progress to be above the average of the country’s entities and gain 10 positions with respect to the previous measurement. 

This improvement in the performance of criminal justice contributed to positioning the state in the first place in the global ranking of the Rule of Law, in its 2020-2021 edition that was recently released. 

“An effective criminal justice system is an essential aspect of the rule of law since it constitutes the formal mechanism to redress grievances and must respect the rights of victims and accused persons,” says the WJP report. 

The Yucatan Judicial Branch implemented the criminal prosecution system through oral hearings and under a series of principles that protect the human rights of all parties on November 15, 2011, and it was gradually established throughout the state. 

In the second instance, the Superior Court of Justice carried out an exhaustive preparation of Magistrates, who resolve the appeals that the parties promote as a legal remedy of disagreement with the decisions of the judges of the first instance.

Currently, the Superior Court of Justice has a Civil and Criminal Collegiate Chamber, made up of Judge Ligia Aurora Cortés Ortega and Judges Luis Felipe Esperón Villanueva and Marcos Alejandro Celis Quintal. 

For its part, the Criminal and Commercial Collegiate Chamber, which also resolves issues of this matter in the second instance, is made up of judges Leticia del Socorro Cobá Magaña, Ingrid I. Priego Cárdenas, and Judge José Rubén Ruiz Ramírez.