DUSHANBE, September 17, Asia-Plus — In the framework of the Rule of Law Initiative for Central Asia established by the EU and led by France and Germany, the project, Rule of Law Platform – Central Asia, is holding a high level regional seminar on Constitutional Law in Helsinki today, in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.
According to the Delegation of the European Union to Tajikistan, the objective of the Regional Seminar on Constitutional Law is to facilitate and deepen cooperation on relevant issues related to Constitutional Justice. Approximately 50 participants from the EU and Central Asia, judges from constitutional courts and representatives of national institutions dealing with constitutional law will discuss implementation of the joint EU-Central Declaration adopted in December 2012 in Brussels at the Third Conference of Ministers of Justice of the European Union and Central Asian Countries which underlined the “importance of the continuous cooperation and further reforms of legislation in the field of constitutional justice and other spheres related to the rule of law.”
The meeting will be chaired by Mr. Pekka Haavisto, Minister for International Cooperation of Finland. It is aimed at deepening the dialogue and exchanges of experience on constitutional law, and especially at sharing the best practices in the following areas: operating procedures of constitutional jurisdictions as a means to guarantee their independence, mechanisms for safeguarding fundamental rights and freedoms, and control of constitutionality to strengthen the rule of law. The seminar should facilitate the processes of introducing international standards of constitutional justice.
Participants are expected to endorse recommendations to promote measures supporting the constitutional justice reform in the Central Asian countries, which will feed the dialogue between the Ministers of Justice of the European Union and Central Asian Countries at the Fourth Conference on Rule of Law in Astana, Kazakhstan, on October 14-15, 2014.
A key element of the EU-Central Asia Strategy for a New Partnership, the Rule of Law Initiative for Central Asia Project constitutes the overarching regional framework for enhanced cooperation in the rule of law area, aimed at supporting legal reforms in Central Asia and the sharing of EU experience. Under the auspices of the Rule of Law Initiative, the Rule of Law Platform regional project acts as a support mechanism to facilitate policy dialogue and promote the measures contributing to legal reforms in each of the Central Asian countries.
