Fiftieth AALCO annual sessions begin today

The 50th annual sessions of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO) will be held at the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel Colombo from today to July 1. This event is jointly organized by the Ministries of Justice and External Affairs. About 200 delegates representing 47 member states and observers will participate. Australia and New Zealand will participate as observers.

Among the delegates are nine Ministers of Justice and six Attorneys General. The President of the International Court of Justice Hisashi Owada is also expected to participate in the sessions, states the Justice Ministry in a press release.

The release adds:

"The sessions will be declared opened by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at 9.30 am today.

The Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO) originally known as the Asian Legal Consultative Committee (ALCC) was constituted on November 15, 1956. Seven Asian States, namely Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, and the United Arab Republic (now Arab Republic of Egypt and Syrian Arab Republic) are the original member states.

In 1958 in order to include participation of countries of the continent of Africa its name was changed to Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee (AALCC) and in 2001, the name of the Committee was changed to Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO).

The purposes and objectives of the organization are -

*To serve as an advisory body to its member states in the field of international law and as a forum for Asian-African co-operation in legal matters of common concern;

* To consider and deliberate on issues related to international law that may be referred to the organization by the member states and to make such recommendations to governments as deemed necessary;

* To exchange views, experiences and information on matters of common concern having legal implications and to make recommendations thereto if deemed necessary;

* To communicate, with the consent of the governments of the member states, the views of the organization on matters of international law referred to it, to the United Nations, other institutions and international organizations;

* To examine subjects that are under consideration by the International Law Commission and to forward the views of the Organization to the Commission; to consider the reports of the Commission and to make recommendations thereon, wherever necessary, the Member States; and

* To undertake, with the consent of/or at the request of member states, such activities as may be deemed appropriate for the fulfillment of the function and purposes of the Organization.

Organizers of the forthcoming sessions have proposed eight substantive items for deliberation such as UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and their Property, Deportation of Palestinian and Settlement of Jews in All Occupied Territories in Violation of International Law, Trafficking in Women/Children, Migrant Workers and Protection of Children, Environment and Sustainable Development, International Commercial Arbitration.

The current AALCO President is Celina Kombani, Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs of Tanzania. At the 50th sessions in Colombo the Presidency will be handed over to Minister of Justice Rauff Hakeem.