Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz


A bill that would make it much easier to get a divorce in Peru was proposed by congresswoman Rosario Sasieta in 2006 and is on the verge of being promulgated by the country's president.

The bill, which would make it possible to file divorce papers at a municipality or a notary instead of at the country's Justice Palace, was approved by the Congressional Justice Commission in March and was passed by Congress on Wednesday evening.

With 57 votes in favor, 28 against and 7 abstentions, the bill was approved by Congress for the second time. It will now be passed to Peru's President Alan Garcia to be signed into law.

From the day the bill is received by the president, he has 15 days to make his decision on the proposed law.

If the law is approved, couples that have been married for at least two years will be able to file for a divorce at a municipality or a notary.

According to Raul Castro, the head of the Congressional Justice Commission, the new law would speed up the divorce process, which currently takes between 6 and 8 months.

Rosario Sasieta explained that the objective was to reduce the cost of a divorce, the amount of time it took and alleviate the Judicial Power of a lot of paperwork.

The congresswoman explained that from the time divorce papers were filed until the moment a judge passed a sentence, a great deal of judicial workers were unnecessarily put to work.

It was reported that divorces would be handled at municipalities or notaries as long as spouses had already come to an agreement with respect to child custody and personal possessions.

There are currently over 3.6 million divorce cases pending in Peru's court system.