H.E. Professor & Doctor Rahmat Mohamad, the SG of AALCO Attended the Fourth Malta Conference on Cross-frontier Child Protection and Family Law

H.E. Professor & Doctor Rahmat Mohamad, the SG of AALCO Attended the Fourth Malta Conference on Cross-frontier Child Protection and Family Law

At the invitation of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH),  H.E. Professor & Doctor Rahmat Mohamad, the Secretary General of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization ( AALCO) attended the Fourth Malta Conference on Cross-frontier Child Protection and Family Law hosted by the Government of Malta in collaboration with the HCCH at Valletta, Malta from 2 to 5 May 2016. The gathering witnessed participation of over 130 government officials, judges and other experts from 34 countries including some AALCO Member States such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Senegal, Singapore and Turkey, and also from some international organizations and institutions. The meeting, through country reports, panelist presentations and hypothetical cases studies, recognized the utility of finding solutions to the difficulties encountered in the area of international child protection, affecting the fundamental rights of children, through reinforced international cooperation and, in particular, through accession to or ratification of the Hague Children’s Conventions, namely, the 1980 Child Abduction Convention, the 1996 Child Protection Convention and the 2007 Child support convention. The meeting, in its declaration, also acknowledged the benefits that mediation can offer in cross-border family matters and encouraged the promotion of good practices in mediation and other processes to bring about the agreed resolution of international disputes which fall within the scope of The Hague Children’s Conventions. H.E. Professor & Doctor Rahmat Mohamad, in his intervention, expressed the willingness of the AALCO to help and assist its Member States in better understanding the nuances of the Hague Children’s Conventions and encouraged them to make full use the relevant convention mechanisms. He also reaffirmed AALCO’s commitment to continuously strengthen its long established cooperation with the HCCH in terms of private international law matters.

The Malta Process was developed within the framework of the Hague Conference, and it promotes cooperation with countries with legal systems based upon or influenced by Islamic (Shari’a) law, for the resolution of complex trans-frontier family conflicts, notably issues of protection of contact rights between parents and children, and issues of parental child abduction.