Judith Olinda Quisbert Martínez

Judith working on monitoring administrative processes.

Coming from the department of La Paz in Bolivia, Olinda Quisbert Judith Martinez, arrived at Colombia in March, 2013 to join the law school at the University of Cauca as an undergraduate student. She was able to have this experience at Unicauca, thanks to a cooperation agreement signed in 2012 between the private University, Franz Tamayo and Unicauca that promotes academic mobility between members of the two institutions.

" I almost cried the first month” recalls Judith, "the system here is very different than how it is in my country. Maybe because I come from a private university where they use a rote learning process. Here is different, the students need to be up-to-date on current events, they have to continuously read, and they should be at the forefront on political issues.. I had to work hard to reach the level of the other students"

Judith decided to study in our country not only because of her interest in Colombian law, but also because she thinks that Colombia is " very rich in various ways."

After agreeing with her tutor on the subjects to attend at Unicauca and completing the paperwork at the Embassy of Colombia in Bolivia, she was able to travel to Colombia.

Judith received a lot of help on the procedures of the mobility process by the Student Welfare Office at the city of El Alto, where she was finishing her fifth semester at the Law School.

Once at the University of Cauca, the Orii made helped her to legalize her stay in Colombia and solve issues related to accommodation.

Adapting to life in Popayan was not a problem for the Bolivian student. She says that the city is such a quiet place that she could stay and live here. But she can’t because she has a not because he has a family and business to take care at home.

During her stay in the citys, Judith not only took the six subjects from different semesters that she should take, but also worked as administrative instructor, participated on an indoor soccer championship, practiced other sports at University Center Tulcan and traveled to other municipalities such as El Bordo and Bolivar, invited by some families who, in her own words, treated her like a queen.

Judith with some classmates

Thanks to this experience and learning from different areas of law, Judith found a way to contribute to the legal development of her country and has a proposal in mind.

"Definitely I will propose to open an administrative litigation jurisdiction because that will help to expedite processes and will lower the labor load. There is not such a case load. In Bolivia we do not have that jurisdiction, are the Ordinary , the Agro-environmental and Native Indigenous Peasant Jurisdiction . "

Another aspect that caught the attention of Judith was the existence of municipal courts. In Bolivia only the departmental courts work. However, she thinks that her country is ahead of us regarding to the Native Indigenous Jurisdiction, as in Colombia "there is a marked line between farm people and Indians, the indigenous one side, the farmer on the other."

Judith mentions other differences that she has found between her country and ours. “For the criminal law, we continue driving the inquisitorial system, but, here are, you use the adversarial system. By 2014 they will handle a single overall process code; we are still working Substantive Labour Code and Code adjective, then here are deleting many things to have a better procedural activity, we are a little behind in that aspect. "

After analyzing various points of the legal situation of her country, the Bolivian student wants to propose a law to the House of Representatives. Thanks to the new Constitution that came into force in 2009, any citizen can do this. " But first I have to research if other people have already proposed it, perhaps some Senators or deputies. She wants to focus on a well framed project, with well defined objectives to make a real contribution."

After one semester, that Judith has considered short, because she says she would have loved to spend more time in Popayan , she will return home to implement what she have learned.

Although time has expired Colombia exchange is not a closed chapter in the life of Judith Olinda. He plans to return to our country to practice even is clear that , if things go as expected , his eldest daughter studied at the University of Cauca.