ICAM promotes an international declaration to halt the deterioration of the rule of law in Latin America

In response to the growing decline of the rule of law in several Latin American countries, the Madrid Bar Association (ICAM) has presented the Madrid Declaration, a document that proposes a common roadmap to strengthen legal certainty, fundamental rights, and regional cooperation from a legal perspective.

The declaration was adopted this Friday at the conclusion of the ICAM 2025 International Summit: Ibero-America, a three-day event held at Casa de América that gathered legal professionals, academics, and institutional representatives from across the region.

A context of institutional decline

Among its central points, the document denounces the weakening of the democratic system, warning that 78% of Ibero-American countries have regressed in their levels of the rule of law since 2016, according to data from the World Justice Project. The loss of legal guarantees, the text emphasizes, has direct consequences on foreign investment, social cohesion, and economic development.

“Democratic institutions do not fall suddenly, they unravel silently,” warned ICAM Dean Eugenio Ribón during the closing ceremony. Ribón insisted that the responsibility of the legal profession goes beyond technical advice: “and the duty of bar associations is none other than to raise their voices when checks and balances are weakened and compliance with the legal system is undermined.”

Call for regional legal cooperation

The Madrid Declaration calls for full judicial independence, the existence of effective institutional control mechanisms, and the adoption of anti-corruption policies. It also highlights the need to coordinate a regional response to common challenges such as organized crime, artificial intelligence, climate change, and migration.

To this end, it advocates for a renewed multilateralism, in which the legal profession does not merely observe, but takes on a leading role: promoting legal reforms, driving strategic litigation, and ensuring effective access to justice. In addition, it highlights the importance of quality legal education and professional ethics as pillars for addressing the challenges of a global, digital, and complex environment.

The deputy responsible for ICAM’s international area, Teresa Mínguez, the main promoter of the Summit, insisted that the European legal profession must play an active role as an ally of Ibero-American institutions. “Cooperation between our legal professions is not only possible, but urgent and necessary,” she said.

Expanding access to justice and legal integration

The Declaration also proposes structural reforms in judicial systems, the improvement of public defense services, and the expansion of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, such as arbitration and mediation. Its objective is to overcome barriers that currently prevent large sectors of society from having equal access to justice.

With an eye on the upcoming Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government and the 50th anniversary of the Ibero-American Union of Bar Associations and Lawyers’ Groups (UIBA), the Madrid Bar Association is committed to bringing the content of this Declaration to the main multilateral and diplomatic forums in the Ibero-American world.