Union Chief Justice attends 20th Conference of Chief Justices of Asia and Pacific ROK

THE Chief Justice of the Union, U Tha Htay, attended the 20th Confer­ence of Asia and Pacific which was held from 16 to 19 September in Seoul, the Republic of Korea, in­vited by The Hon Jo Hee-de, the Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Repub­lic of Korea.

The Conference has been held to foster mu­tual understanding by bringing together heads of judiciaries from the Asia-Pacific region to ex­change views on their re­spective judicial systems and developments in the judiciary, contributing to the maintenance of re­gional peace and identi­fying practical methods for judicial cooperation among countries in the region.

Since its inaugu­ral meeting in Penang, Malaysia, in 1985, it has played a significant role as a solid foundation for judicial cooperation with­in the Asia-Pacific region.

Having previously successfully hosted the 8th meeting in 1999 and the 14th meeting in 2011, the Supreme Court of Ko­rea has once again hosted this major international conference, by doing so, Seoul has become the first city to host the event three times, marking a new milestone in the his­tory of these international meetings.

The 20th Conference of Chief Justices of Asia and the Pacific was or­ganized by the Supreme Court of Republic of Ko­rea and Judicial Section of LAWASIA, held from 16 to 19 September at the Grand Hyatt Seoul Hotel. Approximately 250 rep­resentatives including Chief Justices from over 40 jurisdictions and 13 in­ternational organizations attended the meeting.

Then, Chief Jus­tices of the Asia-Pacific Region and the heads of delegates discussed on a variety of topics in the Conference sessions. Since Myanmar’s judicial reform process takes in the cooperation of Asia and Pacific countries, so by attending the Confer­ence, Chief Justices and Heads of the Judiciary of the Asia-Pacific Region exchanged views with regard to use of AI in the judiciary, the importance of judicial education, en­gagement with the media, promoting public confi­dence in the judiciary, fighting judicial corrup­tion and defending judi­cial independence, and discussed their respec­tive issues.

In addition to these programmes, the meeting schedule included a con­ference commemorating the 60th anniversary of UNCITRAL, and a LA­WASIA plenary session on 16 September 2026, an OECD Breakfast Dia­logue, an afternoon ses­sion hosted by SIFOCC and the SIFOCC Support Group Afternoon Session, and a networking break­fast commemorating the UNIDROIT Centenary Breakfast on 18 Septem­ber 2026.

During the confer­ence, the Chief Justice of Myanmar visited the Supreme Court IT De­partment of the Repub­lic of Korea and the War Memorial of Korea, a site of historical significance. — MNA