HUMANITARIAN AND REFUGEE LAW PROJECT

On
ASIAN-AFRICAN LEGAL CONSULTATIVE
ORGANISATION

DONE BY

NAME: DILSHAT RAIHANA

ROLL NO: 1103

BATCH: 9-A

NUALS
 INTRODUCTION

The Asian African Legal Consultative Organisation (AALCO) was constituted on November 15 1956
as a result of the bandung conference . The purposes of the organization is given in article 1 of the
the statute and is as foloows : To serve as a advisory body to it’s member states in the field of
international law ;To consider and deliberate on issues related to international law ; To exchange
views;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, etc.

One of the major achievements of AALCO in it’s programme in the economic field were the
launching of it’s integrated scheme for settlement of disputes in the economic and commercial
transactions in the 1978. Pursuant to that scheme, it was decided to establish regional arbitration
centres under the auspices of AALCO, which would function like international iunstituions with
objectives of promoting international commercial arbitration in the Asian- African regions and
providing for the conduct of international arbitrations under these centres.

Organizational and Substantive Projects for AALCO and its Financial Implications Commencing 2018 .

It may be recalled that a Sub-Committee on the AALCO Secretariat’s Human Resources and Financial
Matters (Hereinafter Sub-Committee) to look into the Administrative and Financial matters of
AALCO was established in 2010. Considering the fact that over ten Member States were not
regularly paying their annual contributions and that the AALCO budget planned on the assumption
that all Member States would pay their annual contributions in full had actually always been in
shortfall, the Sub-Committee suggested that the administrative budget which would be covered by
the actual regular income should be separated from the project budget which would be
implemented only if the Secretariat would receive contributions over the administrative portion.

Secretariat

The purposes and objectives of the Organization as stipulated in Article

1 of the Statutes are as under:

The Secretariat of the Organization is located at its Permanent

Headquarters in New Delhi and is headed by an elected Secretary-
General (Article 3 of the Statutes). Deputy Secretaries-General and
Assistant Secretaries-General who are senior officers of Member
Governments sent on secondment assist the Secretary-General.
Presently, the Governments of People’s Republic of China, Islamic
Republic of Iran, and Japan have deputed their Senior Officials to the
Secretariat. The regular staff of the Secretariat includes officials in
professional and administrative categories. The Organization also
maintains Permanent Observer Missions to the United Nations at New
York and Vienna.

Member states

Fourty Eight countries comprising of all the major states of Asia and Africa are presently the
member states of the organisation. These countries are Bahrain, Egypt, Bangladesh, Cyprus,
Cameron, India etc

AALCO and India

The AALCO has it’s permanent headquarters at New Delhi, India. The relationship between host
government, India and AALCO is governed by the Head Quarters agreement between the
government republic of India and AALCO. The agreement shall be interpreted in the light of it’s
primary objective of enabling the committee at it’s Headquarters at New Delhi to fully and
efficiently discharge responsibilities and fulfil it’s purposes.

Asserting that India attaches great significance to Asian African Legal Consultative Organisation ,
Secretary (West) Sujata Mehta said a number of topics in international law which are still important
to present day concerns, including violent extremism and terrorism , WTO issues, items on the
agenda of the ILC, and the law of the sea , which was deliberated upon on an annual session.

Mehta said in that particular annual session that India has always been participating in AALCO’s
activities with close interest as the country regards the organisation as an important platform to
discuss and crystallise the needs and interests in the field of international law for the countries of
Asia Africa region."In that sense, we see this organization as playing a central role in the
development of international law regionally, and beyond," she added.

Underlying the founding vision was the ambition to democratize the development and
the codification of international law., so that it becomes reflective of it’s hopes and
aspirations of the Asian and later, as the original committee grew and evolved,the
African continent.
AALCO's close cooperation with other international organizations including its
representation at the United Nations has provided an additional platform for AALCO
member states to contribute to the progressive development of international law," said
Mehta.

India in this light would be happy to see enhanced cooperation between the AALCO
with the international organisatios that deal with international law matters-The UN and
the international law commisiion and others. In the session it was said that India is
happy to help AALCO’s contribution to current issues such as marine biological
diversity beyond national jurisdiction and on the legal refgime for cyber-space.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://aalco.int/

https://www.business-standard.com