The International Union of Portuguese Language Judges (UIJLP) has released the new edition of the booklet containing its Ethical Commitment, now also available in English, Spanish and French

Approved by the Ordinary General Assembly of the UIJLP held in Luanda, Angola, on 11 September 2025, the Ethical Commitment sets out fifteen principles to guide the conduct of judges in the Portuguese-speaking countries: independence, impartiality, integrity, reserve, restraint and caution in the online environment, diligence, transparency, courtesy and civility, prudence, professional secrecy, knowledge and training, humanism, honesty, dignity and honour, the ethical use of artificial intelligence tools and the promotion of judicial associationism. The new edition of the booklet was launched at the annual meeting of the UIJLP General Assembly, held in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, in September 2026.

The text draws on the Ethical Commitment of Portuguese Judges, approved in 2008 by the Union of Portuguese Judges, on the Universal Charter of the Judge of the International Association of Judges and on the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct, among other instruments. Its main innovation concerns the ethical use of artificial intelligence in the justice system, in line with the Foz do Iguaçu Charter adopted by the UIJLP in 2024.

The translations take the Commitment beyond the Portuguese-speaking world and make it easier to engage with international judges’ organisations and with the bodies devoted to judicial independence. In the words of the President of the UIJLP Executive Council, Judge Geraldo Dutra de Andrade Neto, the Commitment “expresses a common ideal of how judicial office is to be felt and exercised”.

Read the Ethical Commitment: Português | English | Español | Français