The Pan-American Committee of Judges for Social Rights and Franciscan Doctrine (COPAJU) arose from a 2019 meeting between the Pope and Latin American judges in Rome.
The Pope has now recognized the organization as an international private association of the faithful and has created the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Institute of Legal Research as a dependent organization. Las Casas, a 16th-century Dominican friar, denounced the treatment of indigenous peoples in Spanish colonies.