Participants of the Second JOIC Conference discussing the contents of the Bandung Declaration on Friday (17/9) Photo: Ifa/Public Relations.

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Friday, 17 September 2021 | 19:21 WIB

BANDUNG, PUBLIC RELATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT - The Conference of Constitutional Jurisdictions of OIC Member States or CCJ-OIC was officially established on Friday (17/9/2021) in Bandung, West Java through the Bandung Declaration. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Gulzar Ahmed read the declaration in the closing of the 2nd Conference of the Judicial Conference of Constitutional and Supreme Courts/Councils of the OIC Member States/ Observer States (J-OIC Conference). There were 33 countries participating virtually in the conference, consisting of Constitutional Courts, Supreme Courts/Councils and equivalent institutions of the member courts of OIC/observer states, guest courts, and other international institutions.

Bandung Declaration agreed on several things as follows: (1) To establish a formal platform for the constitutional judiciaries in OIC Member States, as an independent forum to exchange experiences and information on mutual concern relating to dealing with constitutional cases and jurisprudence for the promotion of rule of law, democracy and human rights, (2) To officially launch the platform under the name of Conference of Constitutional Jurisdictions of OIC Member States (CCJ-OIC), (3) To convene the inaugural congress of the CCJ-OIC next year to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, (4) To continue the mandate of the Working Committee consisting of Indonesia, Turkey, Algeria, Pakistan and Gambia to prepare the working papers of the conference to be submitted to the congress, including but not limited to the statute of the CCJ-OIC and the consideration of the relationship of the CCJ-OIC and its interaction with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. 

Plenary Meeting 

Prior to the official establishment, the working committee (Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Gambia and Algeria) conducted a plenary meeting regarding the formulation of the declaration. The meeting was chaired by  Zühtü Arslan, President of the Constitutional Court of Turkey directly in Bandung, West Java. As information, this meeting was part of the event hosted by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia which was the 2nd J-OIC Conference (15-17 September 2021).

Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto supported the idea of using CCJ-OIC as the name of the forum. “Indonesia supports the idea and the use of the word ‘jurisdictions’ as it has a broader meaning and encompasses other institutions that have (similar) authorities, while (the word) ‘judiciary’ specifically addresses the courts. Therefore, Indonesia opined that this concept is already correct,” he said alongside Justice Manahan M.P. Sitompul and Secretary General M. Guntur Hamzah. 

After several opinions and arguments expressed by several countries regarding the name of the forum, they finally reached consensus contained in the Bandung Declaration. Through this forum, the participants once again affirmed the mutual commitment to build relationship by sharing information, experience, and best practices of the constitutional cases in order to promote the rule of law, democracy, and human rights. 

Writer: Sri Pujianti
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari
Translator: WA

Translation uploaded on Sept 20, 2021 at 19.17 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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