Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto officially concluded the 2nd Conference of the Judicial Conference of Constitutional and Supreme Courts/Councils of the OIC Member States/ Observer States (J-OIC Conference) on Friday (17/09) in Bandung, West Java. Photo by PR/Ifa.

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Friday, 17 September 2021 | 19:46 WIB

BANDUNG, PUBLIC RELATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT - Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto officially concluded the 2nd Conference of the Judicial Conference of Constitutional and Supreme Courts/Councils of the OIC Member States/ Observer States (J-OIC Conference) on Friday (17/9/2021) in Bandung, West Java. There were 33 countries participated in the conference virtually, whereas Pakistan and Turkey attended directly at the venue while strictly obeying the health and safety protocols. 

In the closing remarks, Aswanto stated that Bandung Declaration contained the Islamic teachings based on the Qur’an (holy book of Muslims) and Hadist (teachings of the Prophet) that honored mankind as a noble creature. Therefore, as a way of caring the nobility that had been blessed upon the mankind, we should honored the principles of humanity such as protecting and respecting rights of people without discriminating the race, group, nationality (or ethnicity) as well as religion or faith. 

“The spirit of religiosity was embedded in the Indonesian Constitution, which was the 1945 Constitution, in the third paragraph of the preamble stating: By the blessings of Almighty God and motivated by the noble desire to live a free national life, the people of Indonesia hereby declare their independence”. 

Aswanto said that the paragraph illustrated that the independence of Indonesia was built upon the acknowledgement of God the Almighty, hence it showed us the importance of religious values in the national life of a sovereign state. Religious values could also be found in the fourth paragraph mentioning the values of Pancasila as an ideology which the first clause was, “Belief in the One and Only God”. These values were embedded in the preamble of the constitution making it the constitutional basis and reference to understand that religious values were an integral part in the Indonesian constitution. 

The J-OIC Conference lasted 2 (days) starting from yesterday (16/9/2021) and 16 speakers from different countries shared their perspectives, experiences, and best practices regarding the theme which was “Human Rights and Constitutionalism: The Role of Judiciary in Muslim Countries”.

The conference was not only a platform where for the judiciaries of Muslim countries gather, but also a witness of the birth of the organisation called “The Conference of Constitutional Jurisdiction of OIC Member States (CCJ-OIC)” which was officially recorded in Bandung Declaration.

President of the Venice Commission,  Gianni Buquicchio also participated in the conference virtually and congratulated the birth of the CCJ-OIC. He stated that CCJ-OIC hopefully became a forum that enabled a much needed knowledge and experience sharing by its members that were widespread accos the globe including the improvement of the quality of the Courts Decision, 

Writer: Ilham
Editor: Tiara Agustina
Translator: WA

Translation uploaded on Sept 20, 2021 at 18.23 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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