We are a community organization that administers justice

The process of formation of the organization, which was constructed through discussions in local and later on Regional Assemblies, reflects the importance of consensus and the collective spirit for the communities that live in the region.
The justice that is imparted by our regional authorities is also centred in this communal spirit; it is a form of justice which is public and collective, in which many eyes are involved in evaluating those who commit errors.
In our communities, the most serious conflicts are always resolved within the assembly; it is the whole community that determines the sanctions, legitimizing the actions taken along the definition of justice set out by the authorities. It is these authorities who are ultimately responsible to impart justice, but, in addition to having the backing of the assembly, they also have the support of the elders’ council – the people with greater wisdom and respect. Such forms of organization have served us as a model by which to construct our regional institution: the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities (CRAC). The CRAC is the body formed by the elders, while the Regional Assembly serves to evaluate the most difficult cases so that the solutions are come to collectively. This is to avoid committing errors or making arbitrary decisions in the imparting of justice. Given that it was born out of and strengthened by the assembly, the CRAC works alongside the assembly in a horizontal manner. Its principles are: investigate before prosecuting; reconcile before dictating sentences; re-educate before punishing; don’t make distinctions based on age, sex, race, religion or social group; impart a quick and expedited justice. 
There weren’t any Regional Assemblies prior to 1995. With the organization of the security system, a system defined at the regional level originated. Even though the Regional Assemblies deal solely with themes related to Security and Justice, their operation over the past 11 years represents a great advance in terms of large-scale coordination between communities – a process which is ultimately constructing an autonomous territory where a shared autonomy is being used to deal with territorial control and the imparting of justice. Such a process is enriched precisely by the diversity of the communities and the organizations which come together in the Regional Assembly and is the unique product of the discussions held there. An original product of such discussions are, for example,the norms to apply in imparting justice or the steps in the re-education process.
People who are judged by the Regional Coordinator make up for their faults through “social work” which benefits the communities participating in the system. In accordance with the duration of re-education that is dictated to them, the convicted complete 15 days of work in one community and then are transferred to another. This goes on until they have completed the entire duration of their sentence. In the communities, they are monitored by community police and fed by the community while the general population, particularly the elders, takes on their re-education. This includes speaking with them to make them reflect on their actions. In accordance with this, the process continues until the re-integration of these individuals in society. In this process, the community members also learn to accept those who have fallen and the public presence of the convicted serves as an example to others so that they do not commit the same errors. It also serves to reinforce a public consciousness that there is a competent authority and effective justice.
Re-education is a new element which came about in 1998 when we decided to no longer hand over convicts to the Public Ministry. This idea came out of the reflections of various communities from the region about their conflict resolution methods and judicial practices which have always been in force in our communities. Now, our task is to strengthen the practice of these institutions by using as a reference what the communities have done in the past to ensure justice, security and harmony in co-existence and peace.
The search for conciliation, justice which is given freely and the possibility of speaking in our own languages characterizes this new legal system that we, the communities, are constructing; it is a legal system very different from the system that the state imposes upon us and which does not serve to resolve the problems that we must face. It is for these reasons that we felt the necessity to construct a justice and a legal system which reclaim what our communities have done in the past but which also conform to present conditions.
In the construction of our own legal system, which is historical and modern at the same time, in the practices of imparting and attaining justice and in the processes of communal reeducation, we are in fact constructing an autonomous system which does not depend on existing institutions for it to function. Despite the fact that state governments have always tried to destroy indigenous organizational and governmental structures, these structures have always remained alive in our communities. And it is these structures which now give weight, strength and legitimacy to our Communal Justice and Security System.