AALCO’s legacy in supporting forums for dispute resolution deserves a special mention. It is important to recall that the establishment of the Regional Arbitration Centres across the region arose out of the need to retain the adjudication of commercial disputes within the Asian-African region. Prompted by the identification of these gaps by the UN Commission on International Trade Law, this concern was rightly observed by the AALCO Member States and it led to the adoption of the AALCO Integrated scheme on the settlement of disputes in economic and commercial transactions inn 1978. The scheme envisaged the creation of regional arbitration centres and it was first operationalized by the creation of a AALCO Regional Arbitration Centre in Kuala Lumpur in 1978, quickly followed by another in Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt the next year. Over the years the number of Regional Arbitration Centres have expanded to 6 with the most recent one opening its doors in 2022 in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the People’s Republic of China.
Over the years the regional arbitration centres have acquired a stellar reputation for world-class, cost-effective and timely arbitration proceedings. They have also expanded their dispute resolution services to alternate dispute resolution and offer crucial support to mediation, conciliation as well as some novel hybrid forms of dispute resolution. On the whole it can said without doubt that the establishment of the regional arbitration centres under the auspices of AALCO are counted as among the most successful endeavours of the Organization.
Beyond the establishment of regional arbitration centres, AALCO maintains close relations performing crucial functions supporting the field of international dispute resolution, namely the UNCITRAL, the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCC), International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), the India International Arbitration Centre (IIAC) and recently the International Organization for Mediation (IOMed). In the past AALCO has participated in numerous dialogues concerning international dispute settlement in various multilateral and regional fora and continues to promote understanding of legal developments in the field and capacity building.
An agenda item titled “Peaceful Settlement of Disputes” was also brought onto the Work Programme of AALCO on request of Japan in 2018 focusing on the work of various international adjudication bodies settling disputes of international character, primary among them being the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea along other organizations offering other forms non-binding international dispute settlement such as mediation, negotiation, and resort to good offices. As a primary obligation of Member States featuring prominently in the UN Charter, the AALCO supports initiatives aimed at enhancing the use of peaceful settlement of international disputes.