Deadline: 8 December 2017
The United States Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) is seeking applications from qualified non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other qualified organizations with expertise in improving the quality of justice in Mexico by ensuring that the Mexican citizenry have a reliable, trustworthy, capable, and transparent criminal justice system.
The purpose of this project is to enhance citizen security by advocating and planning for standardization and certification of Mexican justice sector actors. INL is seeking to partner with a qualified organization, with expertise in the area of law and legal teaching curricula, as well as evaluation and exam development, to develop and improve the capacity of Mexico’s new criminal justice system.
Project Goals
The goal of the Project is threefold:
- To build the political will, buy-in, and acceptance of national-level justice sector accreditation and exams, potentially including these as requirements for practice, in order to strengthen and the enhance Mexico’s new system of criminal justice;
- Develop a roll-out and public information strategy to maximize political will for institutional and professional acceptance, administration, and taking of the exams across judicial actors to improve citizen security; and
- To develop up to eight (8) exams to be administered on a national level, that will evaluate the skills of current and future justice sector operators, as well as their instructors, and hold justice sector actors accountable to high professional and ethical standards to enhance transparency in public institutions.
Project Objectives
- Objective 1: Build political will, buy-in, and acceptance of accreditation and national-level justice sector exams, potentially including as requirements for practice;
- Objective 2: Develop a roll-out and public information strategy to maximize political will for institutional and professional acceptance, administration, and taking of exams across current and future judicial actors.
- Sub-objective 1: Promote knowledge and acceptance of exams to ensure the exams are administered to up to 3,000 public servants and future justice sector operators
- Objective 3: Develop up to eight (8) exams to be administered on a national level, to evaluate the skills of current and future justice sector operators, as well as their instructors, in the following eight key areas pertaining to criminal justice:
- Criminal Procedure (Procedimiento Acusatorio)
- Pre-trial Detention (Medidas Cautelares)
- Alternative Dispute Resolution (Medios Alternos de Solución de Conflictos – MASC)
- Juvenile Justice (Justicia para Adolescentes)
- Enforcement of Judicial Penalties and Sanctions (Ejecución de Sanciones)
- Legal Ethics (Ética)
- Instructor Training (Formación de Docentes)
- Specialized Exam (Examen Especializado)
- Sub-objective 1: Build the exams with the competent Government of Mexico institutions to ensure official validity and the possible application of these exams for any interested graduated student, lawyers and justice sector operators.
- Sub-objective 2: Ensure exams are kept up-to-date or corrected, given possible changes to the Mexican criminal procedure and other laws that will impact the exams over the life of the project.
Funding Information
The anticipated total federal funding amount is not to exceed $13,000,000. The period of performance is three (3) years with an anticipated start date of January 2018.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants that qualify to receive U.S. grants (such as U.S. not-for-profit/nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or U.S. based educational institutions subject to section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code; foreign not-for-profits/non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or foreign based educational institutions), with the ability to develop and successfully implement a project in Mexico and meet INL’s reporting requirements.
- Organizations must also be able to demonstrate current (or pending) country registration in Mexico, if required.
How to Apply
Applicants can apply via given website.
For more information, please visit Grants.gov.