Monday, March 22, 2021 | 13:16 WIB
Chief Justice Anwar Usman, Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto, Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, and the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Director for Legal Affairs and Political and Security Treaties Purnomo Ahmad Chandra attending the 16th Bureau Meeting of the World Conference of Constitutional Justice (WCCJ) virtually, Saturday evening (20/3/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Ilham.
JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia (MKRI) attended the 16th Bureau Meeting of the World Conference of Constitutional Justice (WCCJ) on Saturday evening, March 20, 2021. The WCCJ is a conference for constitutional institutions around the world. It unites 117 constitutional courts and councils and supreme courts in all five continents—Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia/Oceania, and Europe. The virtual meeting took place in Venice, Italy to discussed the preparation for the 5th WCCJ Congress, planned for October 2022 in Indonesia.
At the meeting, the MKRI was represented by Chief Justice Anwar Usman, Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto, Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, and Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah. The MKRI also invited the Director for Legal Affairs and Political and Security Treaties of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Purnomo Ahmad Chandra.
The bureau meeting was chaired by the president of the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic Milton Ray Guevara and attended by 10 constitutional judicial associations from various regions and of language groups worldwide as well as the Venice Commission as the WCCJ secretariat. These associations are the Association of Asian Constitutional Courts and Equivalent Institutions (AACC), the Association of Francophone Constitutional Courts, Commonwealth Courts, the Eurasian Association of Constitutional Review Bodies, the Conference of Constitutional Courts of Portuguese-speaking Countries, the Conference of Constitutional Jurisdictions of Africa (CJCA), the Conference of European Constitutional Courts, the Ibero-American Conference on Constitutional Justice, the Southern African Chief Justices Forum, and the Union of Arab Constitutional Courts and Councils.
Five WCCJ bureau-member individual courts also attended the meeting to represent each of the five continents—the MKRI for Asia/Oceania, the Constitutional Council of Djibouti for Africa, the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic for the Americas; and the Constitutional Court of Italy for Europe. The MKRI was selected to represent Asia/Oceania in the general assembly in the preparation of the 4th WCCJ Congress in Vilnius, Lithuania, Tuesday, September 12, 2017.
Also read: Constitutional Court to Represent Asia as WCCJ Bureau
In his remarks, Chief Justice Anwar Usman thanked the WCCJ for selecting MKRI as the host of the upcoming congress. “Under the theme ‘Constitutional Justice and Peace’ (for the congress), it is important that the WCCJ prove to the world than in enforcing the law and democracy, as well as protecting human rights, all should be based on the spirit of realizing everlasting peace,” he said.
On behalf of the MKRI, Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto also stressed, “In keeping with the decision (of the 14th Bureau Meeting of WCCJ), Indonesia appreciates and will follow up on the [suggestion] by the Constitution Council of Algeria to cover the accommodation expenses for the delegations of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).”
Also read: Court Stresses Readiness to Host 5th WCCJ Congress
Next, in his report, Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah stated that the MKRI had hosted various regional and international events. This time, he said, the MKRI planned on hosting the 5th WCCJ Congress in Bali. He added that the Court has taken various steps of coordination to prepare for the upcoming congress, including inviting President Joko Widodo to open the congress, communicating with various state institutions, and establishing a coordinating committee.
Guntur expressed the MKRI’s hope that the COVID-19 pandemic would soon end as well as the Court’s readiness to prepare the procedure and facilities following the health protocol set by the WHO. “I believe that the congress in Bali, Indonesia will bring a significant outcome to the enforcement of the constitution globally,” he said. If the pandemic is not over by 2022, he added, Indonesia is prepared to host the congress with a hybrid method, combining on-site and virtual meeting supported by the latest technology.
Closing the remarks by the MKRI delegation, Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, who was the AACC president in 2015-2017, proposed that the 5th WCCJ Congress on “Constitutional Justice and Peace” discuss more comprehensively the role of constitutional judicial institutions domestically and globally in maintaining peace and preventing conflicts that arise due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Moreover, I believe that in the upcoming congress, the WCCJ should seriously consider establishing a center for peace and democracy to support this organization to focus and contribute more to two of its key objectives: maintaining the values constitutional democracy and world peace,” he added.
In the meeting, the WCCJ Secretariat-General Schnutz Durr expressed appreciation of the MKRI’s commitment to host the 5th WCCJ Congress and the open communication between the WCCJ Secretariat and the MKRI’s International Relations Unit. The MKRI was selected to host the 5th WCCJ Congress at a previous WCCJ Bureau Meeting in 2020, where the Constitution Council of Algeria withdrew its proposal to host the congress. Most of the bureau’s members supported the selection of Indonesia as the new host.
Writer: Yuniar Widiastuti
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti
Editor: NL
Translation uploaded on 3/22/2021 15:24 WIB
Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian version, the Indonesian version will prevail.
Monday, March 22, 2021 | 13:16 WIB 545