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Honduras Judiciary
The judicial branch of government consists of a Supreme
Court of
Justice, courts of appeal, courts of first instance
(Juzgados de
Letras), and justices of the peace. The Supreme Court,
which is the
court of last resort, has nine principal justices and
seven
alternates. The Supreme Court has fourteen constitutional
powers
and duties. These include the appointment of judges and
justices of
the lower courts and public prosecutors; the power to
declare laws
to be unconstitutional; the power to try high-ranking
government
officials when the National Congress has declared that
there are
grounds for impeachment; and publication of the court's
official
record, the Gaceta Judicial. The court has three
chambers--
civil, criminal, and labor--with three justices assigned
to each
chamber.
Organizationally below the Supreme Court are the courts
of
appeal. These courts are three-judge panels that hear all
appeals
from the lower courts, including civil, commercial,
criminal and
habeas corpus cases. To be eligible to sit on these
courts, the
judges must be attorneys and at least twenty-five years
old. In the
early 1990s, there were nine courts of appeal, four in
Tegucigalpa,
two in San Pedro Sula, and one each in La Ceiba,
Comayagua, and
Santa Bárbara. Two of these courts of appeal, one in the
capital
and one in San Pedro Sula, specialized in labor cases. In
addition,
a contentious-administrative court, which dealt with
public
administration, was located in Tegucigalpa, but had
jurisdiction
throughout the country.
The next level of courts are first instance courts,
which serve
as trial courts in serious civil and criminal cases. In
the early
1990s, there were sixty-four such courts. Although half of
the
first instance courts were in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro
Sula, each
departmental capital had at least one. Half of the
sixty-four
courts covered both civil and criminal cases, eight just
covered
criminal cases, and seven covered civil cases. There were
also six
labor courts, six family courts, two juvenile courts, two
tenant
courts, and one contentious-administrative court. Most of
the
judges, who must be at least twenty-one years old, held
degrees in
juridical science. Although judges are required to be
licensed
attorneys, many in fact are not.
The lowest level of the court system consists of
justices of the
peace distributed throughout the country. Each department
capital
and municipalities with populations of more than 4,000 are
supposed
to have two justices, and municipalities with populations
less than
4,000 are supposed to have one justice of the peace.
Justices of
the peace handling criminal cases act as investigating
magistrates
and are involved only in minor cases. More serious
criminal cases
are handled by the first instance courts. Justices of the
peace
must be more than twenty-one years of age, live in the
municipality
where they have jurisdiction, and have the ability to read
and
write. In 1990 there were an estimated 320 justices of the
peace,
with thirty responsible for civil cases, thirty for
criminal cases,
and the remaining 260 justices covering both civil and
criminal
cases. Political patronage has traditionally been the most
important factor in appointing justices of the peace, and
this
practice has often led to less than qualified judicial
personnel,
some of whom have not completed primary education.
The constitution requires that the judicial branch of
government
is to receive not less than 3 percent of the annual
national
budget, but in practice this requirement has never been
met. For
example, in 1989 the judiciary received 1.63 percent of
the
national budget, just slightly more than one-half of the
amount
constitutionally required.
As in previous years, in the early 1990s the Honduran
judicial
system has been the subject of numerous criticisms,
including
widespread corruption and continuing ineffectiveness with
regard to
holding military members or civilian elites accountable
for their
crimes. According to the United States Department of
State's human
rights report for 1992, the civilian judiciary in Honduras
"is
weak, underfunded, politicized, inefficient, and corrupt."
The
report further charged that the judiciary remains
vulnerable to
outside influence and suffers from woefully inadequate
funding, and
that the Callejas government is unable to ensure that many
human
rights violations are fully investigated, or that most of
the
perpetrators, either military or civilian, are brought to
justice.
Justice is reported to be applied inequitably, with the
poor
punished according to the law, but the rich or politically
influential almost never brought to trial, much less
convicted or
jailed.
One frequent criticism has focused on the executive
branch's
dominance over the judiciary. Because a new Supreme Court
is
appointed every four years with the change in the
presidency and
because the executive essentially controls the selection
of the
justices, the judiciary is largely beholden to the
president. This
loyalty to the executive permeates the judicial branch
because the
Supreme Court appoints all lower court justices. To
eliminate this
partisanship in the courts, the Modernization of the State
Commission, established by President Callejas, proposed
that the
constitution be amended to change the way Supreme Court
justices
are appointed. According to the proposal, justices would
hold
seven-year appointments and would be selected from a list
of
candidates developed by a special committee composed of
those who
work in the justice sector.
Another criticism notes that judicial personnel are
often
unqualified for their positions. Although a Judicial
Career Law
(which requires that all hiring and promotions be based on
merit
and that all firings based on cause) was approved in 1980,
the
government did not begin implementing the law until 1991
because of
the overall lack of political will. The United States
Department of
State's human rights report for 1992 maintained that
results have
been few, but AID states that the law could be fully
implemented by
1995. AID has lent support to the Honduran court since
1985 and in
1989 began an experimental program designed to improve the
selection process for justices of the peace so that the
appointed
justices would hold law degrees. By 1991 the AID program
accounted
for the qualifications of eighty-one justices of the
peace, and AID
estimated that by 1995 about half of all justices of the
peace
would have law degrees.
Closely associated with the judicial system and the
administration of justice in Honduras is the Office of the
Attorney
General, which, as provided in the constitution, is the
legal
representative of the state, representing the state's
interests.
Both the attorney general and the deputy attorney general
are
elected by the National Congress for a period of four
years,
coinciding with the presidential and legislative terms of
office.
The attorney general is expected to initiate civil and
criminal
actions based on the results of the audits of the Office
of the
Comptroller General. The law creating the Office of the
Attorney
General was first enacted in 1961.
Although some public prosecutors operate out of the
Office of
the Attorney General, most operate out of the Office of
the Public
Prosecutor of the Supreme Court. The public prosecutor of
the
Supreme Court also serves as chief of the Prosecutor
General's
Office (Ministerio Público) as provided under the 1906 Law
of the
Organization and Attributions of the Courts. In April
1993, the Ad
Hoc Commission for Institutional Reform created by
President
Callejas recommended the creation of a Prosecutor
General's Office
as an independent, autonomous, and apolitical
organization, not
under either the Supreme Court or the Office of the
Attorney
General. The prosecutor general would be appointed by the
National
Congress by a two-thirds vote for a seven-year
appointment. The ad
hoc commission also recommended that this new Prosecutor
General's
Office have under it a newly created Department of
Criminal
Investigation (Departamento de Investigación
Criminal--DIC), a
police and investigatory corps that would replace the
current DIN,
a department of the Public Security Force (Fuerza de
Seguridad
Pública--Fusep) that has often been associated with human
rights
abuses.
Data as of December 1993
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