The Asian–African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO) is an international governmental organization formed in 1956, initially to serve as an advisory board to member states on matters on

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

. It was an outgrowth of the

Bandung Conference The first large-scale Asian–African or Afro–Asian Conference (), also known as the Bandung Conference, was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on 18–24 April 1955 in Bandung, We ...

, held in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

during April, 1955, which led to the establishment of the Asian Legal Consultative Committee (ALCC). In April, 1958, it changed its name to the Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee (AALCC) to reflect the growth of its membership beyond the African side of the

United Arab Republic The United Arab Republic (UAR; ) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 to 1971. It was initially a short-lived political union between Republic of Egypt (1953–1958), Egypt (including Occupation of the Gaza Strip by the United Ara ...

. Since 2001, it has been known by its current name, the AALCO, reflecting the growth of its international status; currently an

intergovernmental organization Globalization is social change associated with increased connectivity among societies and their elements and the explosive evolution of transportation and telecommunication technologies to facilitate international cultural and economic exchange. ...

having received a standing

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

invitation to participate as an observer in the sessions and the work of the General Assembly and maintaining a permanent office at Headquarters. In 2014, the AALCO established an Informal Expert Group on Customary International Law. That group adopted a set of comments on the work of the International Law Commission on identification of customary international law. Those comments and the report of the AALCO Special Rapporteur Sienho Yee are published on the website of the AALCO.

AALCO Regional Centres for International Commercial Arbitration

One of the major achievements of AALCO in its programme in the economic field was the launching of its Integrated Scheme for Settlement of Disputes in the Economic and Commercial Transactions in 1978. Pursuant to that Scheme, it was decided to establish Regional Arbitration Centres under the auspices of AALCO, which would function as international institutions with the objectives to promote international commercial arbitration in the Asian-African regions and provide for conducting international arbitrations under these Centres. Five such Centres have been established so far, as below: *Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC, formerly known as Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration), Malaysia *Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA), Arab Republic of Egypt *Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration Lagos (RCICAL), Nigeria *Tehran Regional Arbitration Centre (TRAC), Islamic Republic of Iran *Nairobi Centre for International Arbitration (NCIA), Nairobi, Republic of Kenya The respective host Governments recognize their independent status like an international organization and have accorded privileges and immunities to these Centres. AALCO provides its expertise and assistance to its Member States in the appointment of arbitrators and other matters related to the conduct of arbitration. Its Centers provide the opportunities for training of arbitrators as well. The Directors of the Centres, who are from amongst lawyers familiar to arbitration, are appointed by suggestion of the host governments and ratification of the Secretary-General of AALCO. Directors of the Centres present their reports on the functioning of the Centres at the Annual Sessions of AALCO.

List of AALCO Secretaries-General

*Barry Sen (1956–1987) *Frank X. Njenga (1988–1994) *TANG Chengyuan (1994–2000) *Wafik Zaher Kamil (2000–2008) * Rahmat Mohamad (2008–2016) *Kennedy Gastorn (2016–2020) *Kamalinne Pinitpuvadol (2021–present)

Members

The current membership includes the following members, with founding members marked with an asterisk (*):

Observers

* *

Former members

* *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization International law organizations Intergovernmental organizations Organisations based in Delhi Organizations established in 1956 United Nations General Assembly observers Third-Worldism 1956 establishments in Asia