Quito/Vienna, 18 January 2021 – Marking the next step in Ecuador’s efforts to bolster anti-corruption measures within the judiciary, several hundred judges and judicial experts from across the country will gather online this week for the virtual ‘Seminar on Conduct and Judicial Ethics’. Set to be held on Wednesday 20 January, the seminar is part of a wider partnership on judicial integrity which kicked off last year between the Council of the Judiciary of Ecuador and UNODC’s Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration.
Since May 2020, Ecuador has been designated a training site of UNODC’s Global Judicial Integrity Network for the implementation of its Judicial Ethics Training Tools, which has now been rolled out to 66 countries worldwide. As part of this, the complementary online course which is being showcased this week was developed by UNODC to promote judicial integrity during the technically challenging times of COVID where traditional in-person training is not possible. Aimed at providing judges with a stronger understanding as to the relevance and application of the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct to their work and life, the training is designed to assist judiciaries to recognize when judicial conduct and ethics issues come into play, both within and outside the workplace, and provide a range of methods to help them deal with associated challenges.
As an internationally developed tool which draws from global experiences, Ecuadorian authorities have included the online course as a mandatory element of the national training for all 3,000 judges and members of the judiciary. This week’s seminar welcomes the first group to have completed the course, offering judges at a variety of levels of seniority the opportunity to converse and share their experiences.
Amongst others, the seminar will be joined by the President of the Judiciary Council of Ecuador, María del Carmen Maldonado Sánchez; the Global Coordinator of the Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration, Marco Teixeira; and the Head of UNODC’s work on Judicial Integrity, Roberta Solis.
For further media enquiries, please contact:
Paulina Rivadeneira (Quito) / Communication Focal Point for UNODC Office in Peru and Ecuador
Email: paulina.rivadeneira [a] un.org
Kevin Town (Vienna) / Public Information Officer
Email: kevin.town [a] un.org