2 September, Nay Pyi Taw
A coordination meeting between the Union Minister and Attorney General of the Union of the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Advocates General of the Region/ State and Region/ State Law Officers was held at the ground floor meeting room this morning.
At the meeting, H.E. Dr. Thida Oo, the Union Minister and Attorney General of the Union delivered the opening speech; she said that this meeting was held to facilitate coordination between the Ministry and the Offices of Advocates General of Region/ State for functions that require coordination; the Ministry of Legal Affairs has been working to improve all aspects of its functions and the meeting will explain the work progress achieved of the Ministry of Legal Affairs during these eight months from January 2023 to the present; the Ministry also collaborates with international organizations on legal matters to obtain technology and legal assistance; the Ministry of Legal Affairs has signed the Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) for legal cooperation with the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation and also with the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation; the Ministry of Legal Affairs has signed the Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) with the China- ASEAN Legal Research Center on Legal Cooperation and Legal Research Project; the Minister’s Office has been restructured and the Administrative Department has been renamed as the Legal Advocacy Department and the Ministry of Legal Affairs currently operates its functions with the Minister’s Office and its Departments, including the Legislative Draft Vetting Department, Legal Advice Department, Prosecution Department and Legal Advocacy Department; the Union Minister and Attorney General of the Union serve as the Chairperson of the Bar Council under the Bar Council Act and submits recommendations to the Supreme Court of the Union for the admission of enrolment as advocates and taking actions in respect of the offences; the Bar Council meeting has been convened up to fourth times; the Ministry is preparing to upload the information relating to the Bar Council on the Ministry’s website www.mola.gov.mm; in order to timely uploading of the Region/ State laws on the Ministry’s free service MLIS database website, the Offices of the Advocates General of Region/ State need to send these laws in timely manner; the Ministry is implementing its five years Strategic Plan for 2020-2024 with the motto ” Providing Legal Services for Justice”; in order to assess the current progress of the Strategic Plan, the Monitoring and Evaluation Division under the Minister’s Office is conducting mid-term assessment, and the assessment report will be distributed to the Offices of the Advocate General of Region/ State; the Advocates General of the Region/ State are required to report extraordinary cases promptly; the State Administration Council exercises the legislative power in accordance with the section 419 of the Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and it enacted 63 laws in 2021, 40 laws in 2022, 53 laws up to June in 2023, totaling 156 laws enacted to date; laws to be enacted in Region/State must be submitted to the State Administration Council, therefore, the Offices of the Advocates General of Region/State are required to scrutinized the laws under the 6 guidance provided by the Ministry of Legal Affairs on January 17th 2023; the 13th Coordination Meeting of the Legal Translation Commission, where she served as Chairperson, was held via video conferencing from 5th to 7th June, 2023 for three days and they were able to discuss 10 laws; the Ministry provides advice on ASEAN matters, international legal affairs and conventions to respective ministries and participates in matters related to the ICJ; Myanmar is a members of the ASEAN Law Association(ALA), and she serves as a Chairperson of the ASEAN Law Association(Myanmar) and reforms it with the participation of judicial officers, law officers, lawyers, and professors from different Law Departments; the 12th ASEAN Law Ministers’ Meeting (ALAWMM) and the 22nd ASEAN Senior Law Officials Meeting will take place in Myanmar; the law officers from various level of law offices needs to be skilled in prosecution, sound case construction and continuous observation of laws, procedures, orders, directives, newly enacted laws, amendments and repealed laws; various level of law offices are required to comply with the directives of this Ministry when providing pre-trial legal advice; the pre-trial interview process at Pilot Law Offices is required to continue in accordance with the (2020-2024) Strategic Plan; To promote legal knowledge awareness, “Legal Advocacy Training for the heads of Civil Service Organizations” has been successfully opened for Permanent Secretaries, Directors General, Deputy Directors General; now, Course No.3 has been opened and certificates of legal advocacy have been awarded to 98 heads of Civil Service organizations; the Ministry of Legal Affairs, under the guidance of the Chairman of the State Administration Council, has opened this course with the aim of providing heads of Civil Service organizations with a fundamental understanding of legal knowledge; the Ministry of Legal Affairs is working to establish the Legal Advocacy Center and drafts of the Standing Order and Standard Operating Procedure for Legal Advocacy Center have been completed; the Ministry is upgrading the main library and implementing the bookkeeping software system for main library, as well as an e-library system; the Ministry is publishing yearly enacted laws, rules, and law journals and variety of other legal books; to enhance research activities, the research team consisting of master’s and Ph.D degree holders from local and abroad, as well as other research enthusiasts, was established; the legal research team organized monthly sessions for reading research papers, and expressions of appreciation were conveyed to all the participants from the Offices of the Advocates General of Region and State via online.
Afterward, the Deputy Minister and Deputy Attorney General Dr. Htain Lin Oo, Advocates General of the Region/State presented their respective functions. Directors General, Deputy Directors General, Directors, and Advocates General of the Region/State attended this meeting, which was held until this evening.