The Costa Rican Judicial Branch responds positively to the call of the Open Government Partnership and incorporates policies and strategic action plans aimed at producing greater satisfaction in the Costa Rican society by offering breadth, dialogue and the creation of public value in all the services that offers. All this through the implementation of the first institutional Open Justice Policy at national and regional level, which was co-created with civil society and citizens.

The policy is already approved. We are now in the stage of identifying new opportunities, generating ideas, developing proposals and implementaing them. Also discovering new ways for the implementation.

The Open Justice Policy was co-created with the collaboration of international and national experts, as well as the partnership with civil society, organizations and universities. This includes strategies that lead to optimal responses in more competitive, dynamic and complex social, economic and technological environments. Likewise, the participation of civil society was not limited to the co-creation of the policy, since spaces were guaranteed for working groups for collaborative processes.

The promotion of a more transparent management, greater access to public information, a more understandable language, modernize processes, and consolidate accountability, will benefit every Judicial Branch user and the society itself.

In addition, work has been done on identifying the Judicial Branch open data users, to promote the use of public information interest in order to transparent judicial management through technological mechanisms.

The implementation of the Open Justice policy began in January 2019; therefore there are still no tangible results.

However, it has begun with a process of awareness and training to all judicial officers about the Open Justice Policy and its benefits. In addition, a working group conformed by civil society is supervising the institutional processes and the implementation of the policy.

Citizen participation initiatives have been carried out and a Transparency Commission has been created that has developed norms and actions for the promotion of judicial management based on ethical values.

It is expected that with the implementation of the policy and its strategic action plan, there will be an open data portal with institutional information, and spaces for citizen participation will be strengthened; there will be open courts and open public defense offices, among other initiatives that conforms the strategic action plan for the next 5 years.

One of the challenges of the policy construction process was the cultural change in the Judicial Branch officers, to democratize the decision-making spaces by opening channels for listening and dialogue.

Questioning the technocratic and legalistic vision that has prevailed for decades, by recognizing and validating the citizen’s contributions, who offer many ideas and proposals to improve the institution management.

The lack of participatory culture of the Costa Rican society, and the lack of civic education, was also challenges that we had to face.

The Open Justice Policy has budgetary and human resources strengthened.
The Council of Magistrates, which is the decision-making body, approved the Policy, and adjusted institutional rules to the requirements of the Policy as the obligation to incorporate specific actions and open justice activities, such as citizen participation in every office in the Judicial Branch.

The institutional policy has a strong politic support, being a priority in the decision –making body of the Judicial Branch.

The initiative has not been replicated yet, because it is the first Open Justice Policy in the world. But it could be replicated in other judicial Branches in the region, adapted to the idiosyncrasies, conditions and characteristics of each country.

It is possible to replicate spaces for citizen participation and open data strategies, transparency and accountability.

Costa Rica's experience in the co-creation and implementation of this policy can serve as an example of co-created public policy for the entire national and international public sector.

One of the lessons learned is the processes building from the public value perspective. This innovative perspective requires the institution to rethink itself in terms of the citizen needs and to question whether its actions contribute value, not to itself as it was usually prioritized, but to the society.

Creating this policy in conjunction with civil society, from design to implementation, has been a positive way of knowing the real needs and demands of society, which can often be different from what the institution itself believed. In this way, it responds effectively, efficiently and maximizing the resources available, executing actions that respond to a real need.

Bringing the institution closer to the communities, forced judicial officers to relearn even the way they talk and communicate, it was learned that true access to justice entails the use of popular language, and that there are different needs in different areas and communities of the country, therefore we must know the users and their social and cultural contexts.