The Arrecife Court of First Instance in Lanzarote, Adalberto de la Cruz Correa, received this Friday one of the national awards of the XI edition of the Awards for Quality of Justice of the General Council of the Judiciary, for its initiative "Program and guide for comprehensive care for people with disabilities in the judicial district of Arrecife."
Secondly, the public service in the Islands has also been recognized in this edition with the award for the most effective Justice to the Niño Jesús University Children's Hospital of Madrid, for its project "Meeting between professionals of the judiciary and medicine", which this year celebrates its twentieth anniversary. Currently, one of its co-directors is the magistrate from Gran Canaria, Tomás Martín, as the highest responsible for the pilot project of the Court of Violence against Children and Adolescents. Martín was also present at the awards ceremony today, and in fact went on stage to receive the diploma along with the rest of the creators of the initiative.
The awards were presented at an institutional event held on Friday morning in the assembly hall of the central headquarters of the General Council of the Judiciary in Madrid.
The event was presided over by the highest authority of the General Council of the Judiciary, p.s., Vicente Guillarte, and was attended by a large representation of the high instances of the national judiciary. Among the attendees was the president of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, Juan Luis Lorenzo Bragado, who traveled ex profeso from the Islands to show the support of the Government Chamber of the TSJC to the awarded initiatives with connection to the Archipelago.
The awarded project of the Arrecife Court of First Instance presents in an innovative way a series of measures and instruments that, according to the latest legislative modifications, "ambitiously and globally seek to guarantee the fulfillment of the right to effective judicial protection for people with disabilities, their families and their environment, as well as comprehensive care for this group, provided in conditions of equality", stated in its day the note from the Standing Committee that announced the awards.
In a few words of thanks, the magistrate judge of Arrecife highlighted that the project that has been running in the Arrecife Courthouse since January 31 is the result of a team effort that not only seeks to comply with the law, but to go "beyond the legal" and guarantee the satisfaction of all the needs of people with disabilities. He pointed out that the real prize will be that many people and families who come to the public service find technical and comprehensive care that responds to their needs.
He was accompanied on the stage by representatives of two of the organizations that collaborate in the initiative, Natalia Cañeque Martínez representing Plena Inclusión Canaria and María Eugenia Palmas Urtaza on behalf of the Fundación Canaria de Apoyos Adepsi.
This is the third consecutive year in which the Canary Islands Justice is officially recognized by the government of Spanish judges as exemplary in its annual awards; in 2022, in the IX edition, the Council recognized the magistrates of Gran Canaria Ramón Toubes Torres, María del Rosario Arellano and Javier Ercilla García in the Most Effective Justice section, and in the Most Accessible Justice section, the Court of First Instance of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, being its holder Oscar González Prieto, and in 2023, in the X awards, the Court of Instruction number 3 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was awarded in the Most Accessible Justice section, for the project "Pilot development of the Court of Violence against Children and Adolescents", headed by the magistrate Tomás Luis Martín Rodríguez. In 2015, the Government of the Canary Islands had received recognition from the CGPJ in the Most Transparent Justice category.
In the present edition, the award to the Arrecife Court of First Instance is shared ex aequo with the Superior Court of Justice of the Region of Murcia, for its project "Why am I waiting: putting users as head of the system".
The anecdote of the day came from the president of the CGPJ p.s., Vicente Guillarte, who in his speech at the end of the awards ceremony joked with the faces of the winners that are repeated edition after edition. And, in doing so, he alluded directly to the Canarian magistrate Tomás Martín and the president of the TSJC, Juan Luis Lorenzo Bragado: "Tomás, Juan Luis, you must be doing something right", he said before the microphones.
All the recognitions
In this edition, the jury, chaired by the member Gerardo Martínez Tristán, has awarded the prizes in the "judicial body" category to the Government Secretariat of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia for its "Strategic Plan"; to the Superior Court of Justice of Extremadura for its project "Presidency of the TSJ as a model of transparency"; to the Superior Court of Justice of the Region of Murcia, for its project "Why am I waiting: putting users as the axis of the system"; and to the Arrecife Court of First Instance for its "Program and guide for comprehensive care for people with disabilities in the judicial district of Arrecife".
In the category of "entities and organizations related to the Administration of Justice", the awards have gone to the Support Unit of the State Attorney General's Office for the creation of a unique institutional brand identity for the entire Public Prosecutor's Office that allows to establish a more effective communication with the citizens and the Niño Jesús University Children's Hospital, of Madrid for its project "Meeting between professionals of the judiciary and medicine", which this year celebrates its twentieth anniversary.
Likewise, in the category of Most Accessible Justice, the award has been granted to the General Directorate for the Public Service of Justice of the Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts for its projects "Forensic medical care for detainees", "Merits contracted by Comprehensive Forensic Assessment Units (UVFI)" and "Social projection of forensic sciences. Justice and crime prevention based on forensic data".