The President of Costa Rica’s Criminal Cassation Chamber Judge Doris Arias Madrigal, inaugurated Tuesday June 27  the first biregional meeting on innovations in addressing drug related offenses in which Caribbean, European and Latin American countries exchanged information and experiences.

Judge Arias Madrigal stressed the importance of working on strategies for a comprehensive approach to drug users. “The increase in drug trafficking and consumption are problems that can not be tackled separately; they must be tackled as a whole, with regional policies, but also at the national level with state coordination and civil society involvement; this space is an excellent opportunity to learn about best regional practices.”

The meeting, “Drug Policies and Criminal Justice Reforms: Alternatives to Imprisonment for Drug-Related Crimes,” was organized by COPOLAD, a biregional cooperation program funded by the European Commission through EuropeAid.

“Ibero-America can get ahead in organized crime, we can transform our drug-free societies from an innovative, people-centered, integrated and holistic response,” said Judge Doris Arias.

On Wednesday, June 28, Judge Arias participated in the forum “Alternatives to imprisonment during the criminal process,” in which she commented on relevant data on juvenile criminality and drug use; She also presented a video on a restorative justice project conducted with an indigenous community in Costa Rica.

COPOLAD is implemented by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the countries that make up the European Union (EU) to promote drug policies supported by evaluation tools and based on proven strategies. It has a  €10 million budget and spans 48-months, starting in January 2016,

Pelayo Castro. Ambassador of the European Union in Costa Rica, said that,

“For the European Union, today it is a privilege to open the first biregional meeting of our Costa Rican partners, in which 40 delegations from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean meet to share experiences, to learn together about alternatives to imprisonment in the treatment of drug-related offenses. The European Union is working on this issue and is also working with the Judiciary in Costa Rica in many of these aspects and especially with the magistrate Doris Arias Madrigal in a very ambitious project that seeks to continue implementing and promoting restorative justice as an alternative model of justice. We do this by uniting Costa Rica with Mexico and Colombia, and, in short, today we strengthen that bridge that unites justice with security and human rights between the European Union and Costa Rica. “

During 3-day meeting specialists both in the area of ​​drug demand reduction and in reduction of drug supply detailed technical areas for interventions at the national level.

Arias Madrigal holds a doctorate in criminal justice from the University of Alcalá de Henares in Madrid, Spain, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. She is a specialist in criminal science and also has a law degree from the University of Costa Rica. She presides over the Commission for the Access to Justice for juvenile criminal justice and is the director of the restorative justice program of the judicial system of Costa Rica.

“This meeting represents something very valuable to the hemisphere. Costa Rica is the ideal venue for these issues related to different programs and models on imprisonment for drug-related crimes. This meeting is a great opportunity especially to show that there are things that work, that are feasible,” said Adriana Henao Representative of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the OAS.