President to inaugurate 50th annual session of Asian Legal Consultative Org.

The 50th Annual Session of the Asian Legal Consultative Organisation will be held at the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel Colombo from 27 June to 1 July.

The event is jointly organised by the Ministries of Justice and the 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 9 Ministers of Justice and 6 Attorneys-General. The resident of the International Court of Justice  Hisashi Owada is also expected to participate in the sessions.

The Sessions will be declared opened by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday, 27 June at 9.30 a.m.

The Asian-African Legal Consultative Organisation (AALCO) originally known as the Asian Legal Consultative Committee (ALCC) was constituted on 15 November 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 Organisation (AALCO).

The purposes and objectives of the Organisation are: To serve as an advisory bodily to its Members in the international 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 organisation by Member States and to make such recommendations to governments as deemed necessary; To exchange views experience 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 government of the Member States, the views of the Organisation on matters of international law referred to it, to the United Nations, other institutions and international organisations; To examine subjects that are under consideration by the International Law Commission and to forward the views of the organisation to the Commissioner to consider the reports of the Commission and to make recommendations, thereto wherever necessary, to 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 functions and purposes of the Organisation.

Organisers 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 & sustainable development, and international commercial arbitration.

Current President of AALCO is Celina Kombani, Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs of Tanzania. At the 50th sessions in Colombo the Presidency will be handed over Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem