He Pope Francisco created the “Fray Bartolomé de las Casas” institute within the scope of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and appointed a former member of the Supreme Court of Justice as president of its academic board Raul Eugenio Zaffaroni. Said institute will function in the orbit of the «Pan-American Committee of Judges for Social Rights and Franciscan Doctrine» (COPAJU) as a «private association of the faithful with an international character» that the Pope erected simultaneously through a chirograph published this Friday in the Vatican. In that same act he appointed as president of COPAJU (for the period 2023-2028) the Argentine judge Roberto Andres Gallardo. Jorge Bergoglio pointed out that he adopts this decision «echoing the request made by its founders.»
In the resolution by which he creates the institute that Zaffaroni will preside over and that will have «academic, teaching and training purposes on the subject of Social Rights, migration and colonialism», the Pope also resolved that it «will be financially supported, directed and administered by COPAJU and will function within the scope of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences”. The Founding Academic Board will also be made up of Alberto Filippi and Marcelo Suárez Orozco.
Zaffaroni (83 years old) was a member of the Supreme Court of Justice between 2003 and 2014 and a judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the period 2016-2022, and is a figure of great prestige and a permanent source of consultation in the field of law on an international level. The former magistrate has been closely linked to Nestor Kirchner already the vice president Cristina Fernandezfor whom he requested a pardon as a final alternative to the judicial sentence, understanding that there is persecution against the former president.
COPAJU was established on June 4, 2019 in a meeting held in the Vatican, «under the inspiration of the words of His Holiness Pope Francis», according to its founding act signed by the Pope himself. Since then, the organization has been led by a promoting board headed by Judge Gallardo, born in 1964 and graduated from the University of Buenos Aires, who currently works as First Instance Judge in Administrative and Tax Litigation of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
In March of this year, in a meeting held in the Vatican in which Zaffaroni, Gallardo, the deputy Vanessa Siley (Front of All) and judicial references from around the world, was alerted about the «lawfare» as a «phenomenon of political domination and economic subjugation». On that occasion, Gallardo denounced the «logic of submission and neocolonialism» that affects the judicial system.
The decision adopted now by the Pope can be read as a strong backing to the action of the judges whose objective is «to generate a permanent tool whose central objective is to tend to enforceability and justiciability of economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, in pursuit of the effectiveness of such rights in favor of most vulnerable people” through “positive actions aimed at promoting and protecting the exercise, full and permanent enjoyment of economic, social, cultural and environmental rights”.
“The creation of the ‘Fray Bartolomé de las Casas’ Legal Research Institute, with responsibility for Social Rights, Migration and Colonialism, is an excellent decision by Francisco. It focuses on the need to train to transform,» Gallardo told Page 12. “In an academic world deeply technocratic, one-way, and dehumanized, Francisco raises a disruptive wedge. It is not by chance that he designates intellectuals such as Zaffaroni, Filippi and Suárez Orozco as the founding board. This triad is a definition in itself, as is the location of the Institute in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences”, added the magistrate.
The resolution signed by Francisco recognizes that «COPAJU has developed a prolific task aimed at the protection and promotion of social rights from the magistracy, placing special emphasis on the discarded social sectors, affected by the different processes of neocolonialism», which has erected chapters nationals in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, the United States and Paraguay, and that «is in permanent expansion throughout the rest of the American continent.»
Gallardo recalled that «we have been working on the project for several years and we are convinced that it is a genuine and necessary tool for the judges of the three Americas”, and pointed out that with the recognition of the Pope “COPAJU is further strengthened in its character as an ecumenical organization of magistrates, committed to Social Rights and the Franciscan Doctrine that brings together, organizes and defends the judges who watch over human dignity and planetary integrity”. According to the magistrate, “no judicial decision can stop privileging human dignity above all things. A dignified life is the axis around which the social and political process of the peoples must revolve”.
Regarding his appointment, Gallardo said: «I am happy and committed» because «there is a long way to go and great challenges on the horizon, but this decision of the Pope brings a lot of energy and hope, we are many in the same direction and that brings harmony and security ”. Gallardo will be accompanied by judge Ana Algorta Latorre (Brazil) as vice president, Gustavo Daniel Moreno (Argentina) as secretary, and as members, by judges María Julia Figueredo (Colombia), Tamila Ipema (United States), Daniel Urrutia Laubreaux (Chile ) and Janet Tello Gilardi Peru).
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