CHECK OUT IN UN_UNODC "Minister Eliana Calmon assumes Comptroller Office of the Brazilian National Council of Justice"

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Minister Eliana Calmon assumes Comptroller Office of the Brazilian National Council of Justice

September 12, 2010 - The Minister of the Superior Court of Justice of Brazil Eliana Calmon assumed last Wednesday the Comptroller Office of the National Council of Justice. Appointed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to replace Minister Gilson Dipp, Eliana Calmon comes to office with the aim of continuing to improve the administration of the Judiciary. "It is necessary that all of us, judges, believing in the judiciary, unravel the castle of a failed bureaucratic system and hypocritical pseudo-disciplined professionals, with courage, not just accept changes, but be part of them, breaking paradigms, believing that without an efficient Judiciary, the function of the State will be completely impossible", said the minister during her speech.

Defender of the modernization of the Judiciary, minister Eliana Calmon highlighted the importance of the evaluation and diagnosis of the Brazilian Judiciary system in the past years. "For the first time in two centuries, the Brazilian Judiciary System was assessed in numbers and costs. For the first time official diagnoses were made on the operation of the judiciary system, on the official and extrajudicial notary public services.  For the first time, came to the attention of everyone, including the protagonists of the adjudicative function - judges, prosecutors, attorneys and clerks - the result of an expensive justice, confusing, slow and inefficient", said Calmon.

Eliana Calmon also commended the management of Minister Gilson Dipp and said she will continue the work of her predecessor. "I intend to monitor the ten projects launched by my predecessor, monitoring and correcting the courses of this reengineering and auditing work of critical importance", said Calmon, who added that it will take time to achieve the efficiency of the Judiciary. "It is not easy to correct directions, implement modern management practices, make villains leave power and, above all, change the habits and customs of a Judicial developed in the shadows of an elitist, patrimonial, unequal and individualistic society. This is not a work of a few or for a short time. It is an ambitious goal requiring concentrated effort of all actors in the judicial activity, especially of judges", she said.

Minister Eliana Calmon also announced the creation of two new projects to be implemented by the Comptroller Office of the National Council of Justice: the 'Justice Day' to solve processes waiting for resolution, and the following and monitoring of demands considered of high impact to society. "Two points are fundamental to me. The change of mindset in dealing with judicial management and the devolution of self-esteem to the judiciary, diminished and abused over the years by systemic inefficiency of power," said Calmon.

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First woman judge to reach a higher court, Eliana Calmon integrates the First Section and the Second Chamber of the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice and is part of the Special Court. She is also a member of the Federal Court Council and of the Superior Electoral Tribunal.
Eliana Calmon was also a pioneer in 1974, when she assume as a public prosecutor before the age of 30, the first time ever that a woman from the Northeast region of Brazil arrived at the Federal Public Ministry.

In 1979, she entered the magistracy as a federal judge and assumed the Federal Regional Court of the 1 ^st Region. In 1999 she assumed as a minister of the Superior Court of Justice, becoming the first career woman judge to enter a higher court.

The minister will continue her activities in the Special Court during her two years as the president of the National Controller Department of Justice.