Kiren Rijiju to attend the Eighth Justice Ministers Meet of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

New Delhi : The Eighth Meeting of Ministers of Justice of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States will be attended by  Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister of Law & Justice, on 6^th August, 2021.  He will be joined by Prof. S.P. Singh Baghel, Minister of State in the Ministry of Law & Justice.

In the Eighth Meeting of the Ministers of Justice of the SCO, member States shall further deliberate on areas of cooperation; the role of coronavirus laws in the pandemic; providing free legal aid to citizens in accordance with national legislation; role of ministries of (law and) justice in countering corruption and other allied areas of cooperation and assistance in legal services.  A Joint Statement following the results of the Eighth Session of the Ministers of Justice of the SCO Member States shall be signed.

The Ministers of (Law and) Justice and senior officials / experts from the Ministries of Law & Justice of India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will be participating in the Meeting.

The meet will be preceded by the second meeting of the Experts Working Group on 4^th and 5^thof August, 2021 which will be attended by Shri Anoop Kumar Mendiratta, Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs and Legislative Department and other senior officials of the Ministry of Law & Justice. The first Expert Group Preparatory Committee Meeting of the Eighth Meeting of the Ministers of Justice of SCO Countries was hosted by Tajikistan on 10^th -11^th June, 2021.

The Experts Working Group will discuss and share their experiences, practices and the role in countering corruption; providing free legal aid and other related activities of the Ministries of (Law and) Justice including firming up of Agenda and Joint Statement of the Justice Ministers’ Meeting.

Both the meetings will be conducted virtually via Video Conferencing mode. Tajikistan is the host country for these meetings and the SCO Secretariat will be providing necessary assistance during the three days’ deliberations.