ECUADOR [1]

General Information

Ecuador is a unitary state composed of twenty-two provinces and covering 253,370 sq. km. It has a total population of 13,572,000, and 65.8% of its inhabitants live in urban areas. Average population density is 53.5 people per sq. km.; between 2001 and 2005 the population grew at a rate of 1.7%. Those under the age of fourteen accounted for 33.8% of the total population in 2000, while that same year those over fifteen had an illiteracy rate of 8.4%, 4% less than in 1990. Average life expectancy at birth from 2000 to 2005 was 70.8 years[2]. The rate of households living in poverty dropped to 49% in 2002, significantly lower than the 64% registered in 1999. A similar decrease was observed in the extreme poverty rate, which dropped from 31.3% in 1999 to 19.4% in 2002[3]. In regard to economic indicators, the World Bank reported steady growth in Ecuador’s GDP—3% in 2002 and in 2003—while per capita GDP rose from US$1,490 in 2002 to US$1,790 in 2003 with a purchasing power parity of US$3,440. In 2002, the urban unemployment rate was 8.6%.

Judicial System Highlights

• On December 8, 2004 Congress interpreted the Twenty-fifth Temporary Disposition of the Constitution of 1998 and dismissed all thirty- one Supreme Court justices. However, it then immediately proceeded to confirm three of them and elect the remaining twenty-eight.

• In April of 2005 –following various days of protests- President Lucio Gutiérrez removed the thirty-one recently nominated justices after they annulled the corruption trials that were being held against former President Abdalá Bucaram.

• The Supreme Court Justice Evaluation Committee –which was recently created by Congress– is selecting thirty-one new justices. Eleven will come from the judicial career, ten will be university professors and ten will be in free practice.

•  In 2003 Ecuador had 831 judges, or a rate of 6.1 per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2004 there were 2.4 prosecutors per 100,000 inhabitants.

• The justice sector budget for 2005 is equal to 1.97% of the total fiscal budget.

• In 2004 the country had 233.4 police per 100,000 inhabitants.

• On July 1, 2004 the Labor Code Reform Law entered into force, in accordance with a constitutional mandate that called for Congress to implement an oral judicial system.

•  On January 8, 2003 the Commission to Apply the Criminal Procedure Reform (Comisión de Aplicación de la Reforma Procesal Penal) was formed to coordinate the implementation of that reform among all judicial system operators.

•  In 2003 judges faced an average caseload of 4,033 cases. The average clearance rate was 16%.

• Also in 2003, there were 72.7 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants and the overcrowding rate was 69.2%. 62.5% of inmates were in preventive custody.