The Minister of Justice, Rita Alarcão Júdice, will participate this Monday, May 20, in the opening session of the Avocatus Summit Lisbon, where she guaranteed that the Executive "will indeed carry out the Justice reform".

During her speech, the minister highlighted that "we are experiencing challenging and important times for Justice in Portugal", reaffirming that, "if there were any doubts, the Government will fulfill its program".

"The Government will indeed carry out the Justice reform that its program provides for. And it will do so in the interest of all citizens", she stated, adding that, in this process, it will listen not only to the other parties with parliamentary seats, but will also "continue to listen to the superior councils, the Orders, the unions, the magistrates, the lawyers, the conservatives, the notaries, the solicitors, the judicial officers, the prison guards, the social reintegration technicians and other agents of justice", as well as "civil society and the academy", because "all are pillars in this building".

"Our challenge and my purpose will always be to look at justice in a transversal and comprehensive way, but with the citizen's perspective", stressed Rita Alarcão Júdice.

For the minister, society sees Justice as "slow, expensive, inaccessible, inefficient and poorly equipped". Thus, the current Executive undertakes to reform the Court Costs Regulation, invest in programs that facilitate videoconferencing, adopt electronic processing and all jurisdictions and judicial bodies and dematerialize communications between the relevant entities.

As well as "putting itself in the place of the most vulnerable victims" and therefore "continue to provide the DIAPs with specialized sections for processing inquiries into domestic violence crimes and crimes based on gender violence", expand the network of victim support offices and make Justice more child-friendly.

To improve "economic justice and have the courts functioning well", the minister undertakes to provide "assessors for the magistracy", change the criminal procedural legislation to prevent the formation of so-called mega-trials, review procedural norms to prevent expedients that only aim to delay the progress of the process and combat the waste of time caused by the unnecessary extension of procedural documents.

The Government also recognizes the need to "degovernmentalize political choices in the area of Justice" in order to guarantee greater "impartiality of the judicial system and an effective separation of powers".

Regarding the 'Anti-corruption Agenda', the minister promises to present "soon" the conclusions of the Executive's work in this area, "with a list of measures identified as priorities, both in the prevention and repression plan".

In addition, the Ministry of Justice is also working towards the approval of measures that promote "a swift justice, which reduces bureaucracy and unjustified delays", an accessible justice that reduces access barriers, whether financial, geographical, cultural or social, a justice that knows how to take care of the most fragile and vulnerable and a well-administered and organized justice.

Rita Alarcão Júdice also stressed that "perfect laws and good intentions" are not enough, it is necessary to have "competent and motivated professionals" and for that it is necessary to give people "conditions to work", without "courts where it rains" or lack of equipment, nor "degraded prisons". Therefore, the Executive is also "reviewing, making decisions and accelerating" the investment plan in Justice.

At the end of her speech, the Minister of Justice admitted that "there is much to be done", stressing, however, that "any change without foundations is destined to fail" and, in this case, "destroy the very building of the Rule of Law", therefore, having as "starting point the strengthening of the pillars of justice and the defense of the interests of citizens", so that the Justice reform is "effective", the Government will start "from the bottom".

Leia Também: Oficiais de Justiça pedem ao Governo para "robustecer valor" da proposta (Portuguese version)