Updated May 14th, 2004

Justice, Rule of Law and Security of the Individual
Hemispheric Meetings of Ministers of Justice

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Fifth Meeting of Ministers of Justice or of Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas (REMJA V)  

The Fifth Meeting of Ministers of Justice or of Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas (REMJA V) was held in the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC on April 28-30, 2004. The opening ceremony was in charge of the Secretary General of the OAS, Dr. Cesar Gaviria and by the Chairman of the Permanent Council, Ambassador Miguel Ruiz Cabañas, and Permanent Representative of Mexico. ico. The participants expressed their acknowledgement to the Secretary General for his initiative to incorporate the dialogue of Ministers of Justices or Attorneys General under the OAS framework.  

In this meeting, Mexico was elected as President of the REMJA V and the participants nominated Canada, Costa Rica, and Bahamas as first, second and third vice-presidents, respectively. Representatives from 31 Member States, including 16 Ministers of Justice or Attorneys Generals, as well as representatives from the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism (CICTE), the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) and the Justice Studies Center of the Americas (JSCA), were present at the meeting.

On this occasion, the Ministers of Justices and Attorneys Generals of the Hemisphere focused on the hemispheric cooperation in fighting terrorism and transnational organized crime; mutual legal assistance in criminal matters and extradition; hemispheric cooperation on penitentiary and prison policies;
and  on the hemispheric cooperation in fighting cyber crime. Also, there was a follow up on the commitments undertaken in the Declaration of Nuevo
León of the Special Summit of the Americas on the corruption issue.  It is important to note that on this occasion, the issues of trafficking of persons, especially women and children and violence against women were incorporated as regular themes of the REMJA meetings. 

The highlight of the meeting was the unanimous wish to strengthen the cooperation modalities and information exchange among the States in order to combat the new threats such as transnational organized crime, terrorism, and cyber crime. An example of this consensus is the decision to adopt the Hemispheric Information Exchange Network for Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. 

The Sixth Meeting of Ministers of Justice or of Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas (REMJA VI) will take place in the year 2006.

To see the conclusions and recommendations of the REMJA V, please click here.  To see the final report of the Chair of the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs on the REMJA V, please click here.

For more information on the OAS Technical Secretariat for Legal Cooperation Mechanisms, please click here.

IV Meeting of Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General of the Americas 

On March 10-13, 2002, the Fourth Meeting of Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General of the Americas (REMJA-IV) took place in Trinidad and Tobago.  At this meeting, 31 countries of the hemisphere were represented.  This included the presence of close to 20 Ministers or Attorneys General. 

This IV ministerial meeting included a dialogue among heads of delegation on legal and judicial cooperation in the fight against transnational organized crime and terrorism, mutual legal assistance, improving the administration of justice and cyber-crime.  A report from Justice Studies Center of the Americas was also presented for the participants’ consideration. 

A working group was also created to elaborate the Draft Recommendations of the REMJA-IV and develop the draft agenda for the Fifth Meeting of Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General of the Americas.  Please see the following links for the Final Report from this Ministerial, as well as a speech made by Executive Secretary Jaime Aparicio (only in Spanish).

Updated May 14, 2004