UNITED NATIONS EXPERT ON INDEPENDENCE OF JUDGES AND LAWYERS TO VISIT ECUADOR

11 March 2005

The Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Leandro Despouy, will visit Ecuador from March 13 to 17 at the invitation of the Government.

The Special Rapporteur will study the ongoing crisis in the country’s judiciary. In Quito he is scheduled to meet with the President of the Republic, various Ministers and other senior Government officials at the national and local levels and judges from courts at various levels, as well as with judicial associations, university chancellors and professors, international organizations and non-governmental organizations.

The Special Rapporteur will present his preliminary observations to the sixty-first session of the Commission on Human Rights at the beginning of April, and will submit a full report with his findings and recommendations to the sixty-second session in the spring of 2006.