Justice Studies Center of the Americas (JSCA)

The Justice Studies Center of the Americas (JSCA) is an international agency that was created in 1999 by the Inter-American system institutions. It is headquartered in Santiago de Chile, and its members are the active member states of the Organization of American States (OAS). JSCA developed in a context in which nearly every country in the region has undertaken far-reaching justice system reform programs over a period of 20 years. The main areas addressed have been criminal justice, access to justice, and the governance and management of the system. However, many feel that the reforms have failed to deliver the expected results. In addition, there have been no systematic or in-depth assessments of the work that has been done thus far, which has caused the strong initial drive to wane. JSCA was created to address this situation and give new impetus to the modernization of the region’s justice systems. Its mission is to support the countries of the region in their justice reform processes. To this end, it develops training activities, studies and empirical research as well as other initiatives in order to meet its three key goals: To undertake in-depth studies of justice systems and develop innovative approaches in the discussion of judicial reforms; To promote cooperation and the exchange of experiences among key justice system stakeholders at the regional level; To generate and disseminate tools that improve the quality of the information available about justice in the Americas.