The Comité Panamericano de Juezas y Jueces por los Derechos Sociales y la Doctrina Franciscana (“Pan-American Committee of Judges for Social Rights and Franciscan Doctrine”) magistrates’ organization had its first local origins in the City of Buenos Aires, and developed throughout the Republic of Argentina since 2017, giving rise to the first regional meeting in June 2018 at the Faculty of Law of the University of Buenos Aires.

Formally, the Pan-American Committee of Judges for Social Rights and Franciscan Doctrine (COPAJU) was created in the Vatican, at my behest, in June 2019 and with the participation of 120 magistrates from the three Americas, in the context of the meeting held in the Casina Pio IV, headquarters of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Since then, COPAJU has performed prolific work aimed at the protection and promotion of social rights from the magistracy, placing special emphasis on the discarded social sectors, affected by the different processes of neo-colonialism. It has established national chapters in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, the United States and Paraguay, and is constantly expanding throughout the rest of the American continent.

COPAJU has organized numerous international events, including the meetings in Rome in 2019 and 2023, the meeting in Iguazú (Argentina) in 2021, the meeting in Mexico in 2022 and the meeting in Asunción (Paraguay) in 2023. It has also issued numerous documents providing guidance and setting out public positions on various situations within its remit, and has published specialized texts (reviewed on www.copaju.org).

Echoing the request made by its Founders, I express my approval for the Pan-American Committee of Judges for Social Rights and Franciscan Doctrine to become a Private Association of the Faithful of international character pursuant to canons 298-311 and 321-329, erected as a private juridical person within the canonical order, pursuant to canon 322, § 1.

COPAJU is governed by the Statutes annexed hereto and identified by the attached logo, which are hereby approved and form part of this Chirograph. The Statutes shall come into force as of 31 August 2023.

I appoint for the period 2023-2028, as President of the Pan American Committee of Judges for Social Rights and Franciscan Doctrine (COPAJU), Judge Roberto Andrés Gallardo of the Republic of Argentina; as Vice President, Judge Ana Algorta Latorre of the Federative Republic of Brazil; as Secretary, Judge Gustavo Daniel Moreno of the Republic of Argentina; and as members, Judges María Julia Figueredo Vivas of the Republic of Colombia, Tamila Ipema of the United States of America, Daniel Urrutia Laubreaux of the Republic of Chile and Janet Tello Gilardi of the Republic of Peru.

I also approve the creation of the Instituto para la investigación y promoción de los Derechos Sociales “Fray Bartolomé de las Casas” (“Fray Bartolomé de las Casas” Institute for Research and Promotion of Social Rights) for academic, teaching and formation purposes on the field of social rights, migration and colonialism, which will be financially supported, directed and administered by COPAJU and will operate under the auspices of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

I appoint Professors Raúl Eugenio Zaffaroni, Alberto Filippi and Marcelo Suárez Orozco as the Founding Academic Board of the aforementioned Institute for the period 2023-2028.

From now on, the authorities of COPAJU must obtain pontifical approval, based on the proposals that the institution makes for each five-year period.

All that is established in the present Chirograph is fully valid and effective, notwithstanding any provision to the contrary.

Vatican City, 15 August in the year of our Lord 2023, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

FRANCIS