The best way to protect democracy is to ensure the independence of the judiciary, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, said on Tuesday.
While the year 2024 is marked by a significant number of elections around the world, Ms. Satterthwaite recalled that a democracy worthy of the name requires more than just elections.
“Research shows that key indicators of true democracy, including respect for the rule of law and the existence of checks on government power, are in decline around the world,” lamented the expert during the presentation of its latest report to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
At the Human Rights Council, Ms. Satterthwaite stressed that judicial systems also play a critical role in ensuring free and fair elections, resolving disputes over the fairness and legality of electoral procedures.
Furthermore, independent judicial systems ensure that all people are equal before the law. In doing so, such systems help ensure that state action is legal, constitutional and consistent with international human rights law, and they control undemocratic usurpations of power, the Special Rapporteur explained.
Threats of instrumentalization of justice Increasingly, governments that came to power through legitimate elections then exercise their power to undermine democratic systems and rights, she noted. In many States, these attacks on democracy target justice systems and actors, she stressed.
Evoking the threats weighing on the judicial systems today, the Special Rapporteur cited in particular the reforms which limit their independence and increase political control, the legal changes which systematically reduce the power of action of these institutions, the instrumentalization of judicial systems to influence or control judicial personnel, or attacks against judicial personnel.
“Judicial systems promote and protect a fundamental value that underpins participatory governance: the rule of law,” Ms Satterthwaite said. “This principle emphasizes that everyone, even state actors, are subject to the same laws, applied fairly and consistently.”
The expert called on States to do more to revitalize public confidence in judicial institutions and to defend justice actors and their “indispensable role in safeguarding democracy”.
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