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Proyecto ACCESO is the Pan-American judicial innovation and rule of law training program headquartered at California Western School of Law in San Diego. Founded in 1998, Proyecto ACCESO has trained over 1,000 judges, prosecutors, public defenders, justice ministry and other law enforcement officials from fifteen countries in Central and South America.

With funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Organization of American States, United Nations Development Programme, the United States Department of State, and various Latin American national bar associations, Proyecto ACCESO develops curricula and facilitates workshops to educate the new legal professionals of the Americas. Proyecto ACCESO empowers judicial innovators with a vast array of skills to assist them in bringing about sustainable reform in their respective countries.

ACCESO is an acronym for "Abogados Creativos Colaborando para Encontrar Soluciones Optimas."The name of our project aptly describes our approach to the rule of law. Proyecto ACCESO equips lawyers with essential skillsets in the drive towards the rule of law. We provide advocacy courses for newly established oral trial procedures so that judicial proceedings are fairer and more transparent. We empower the bearers of the rule of law with new juridical skills and teach them how to negotiate across cultures. With our legal design studios, we build problem-solving mechanisms to integrate indigenous peoples into the judicial reform process. Together with the participants in our program, we are providing access to justice and assisting in the consolidation of sustainable democracy.

A rare opportunity exists to effect meaningful and sustainable change in the legal systems of the Americas. Over the last decades, many Latin American states have ended dictatorships and begun initiatives to reform their commercial laws and criminal procedures. To create economic growth and attract direct investment, laws have been created to better regulate business disputes, enforce foreign arbitral awards, and develop conciliation procedures. It is no secret that the business communities of most Latin American states and the transnational corporations that engage in local commerce require more efficient settlement of disputes. The time is right to train a new generation of lawyers in effective means for the peaceful resolution of disputes.

At the conclusion of the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, the leaders of the thirty-four states of the Americas supported "public and private initiatives and programs to educate people about their rights relating to access to justice, and promote measures that ensure prompt, equal and universal access to justice."

http://www.americascanada.org/eventsummit/declarations/declara-e.asp

Proyecto ACCESO is striving to equip the lawyers of the Americas to meet and exceed those goals.