The Diplomat
King Philip VI will attend the World Law Congress, to be held in the Colombian city of Barranquilla on 2 and 3 December this year.
This was announced by Philip VI himself during the closing speech of the first day of the International Meeting of Jurists, which was held on Monday and Tuesday of this week at the headquarters of the Casa de America in Madrid and which served as a prelude to the Congress, the most important event of justice and law in the world.
Organized every two years by the World Jurist Association (WJA), the 2021 Congress will be attended by prominent personalities, including heads of state and government, senior representatives of the UN, the OAS and the EU, presidents of constitutional courts, supreme court judges, magistrates, attorneys general from different continents and bar associations, notaries and registrars from various countries.
“Two years ago we held the previous World Congress in Madrid”, said the King during his speech. “I am sure that the success achieved then will be repeated at the one in the Colombian city of Barranquilla, Colombia, which I intend to attend in response to the invitation extended to me, and for which I am so grateful, by the president of that dear sister nation, Iván Duque, and the president of the WJA, Javier Cremades”, he continued. “Colombia deserves, without a doubt, that the next World Congress of Law be held there, when the first 30 years of its 1991 Constitution are also being commemorated”, the Monarch added.
“We are waiting for you in Colombia and we hope that with your presence, Your Majesty Felipe VI, we can have this in-depth debate on how in today’s world the balance between rights and duties is the cornerstone of a democracy that is often threatened by misrepresentations, fake news and by those who seek, through rigged algorithms, also to generate hatred, division and fracture”, said Iván Duque in a message via videoconference addressed to the attendees at the International Meeting.
The mayor of Barranquilla, Jaime Pumarejo, traveled this week to Madrid to participate in the ceremony of the transfer of the official seat of Congress, accompanied by the Minister of Justice, Wilson Ruiz. For her part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, also attended yesterday at the Casa de América the lunch offered by the WJA on the occasion of the second day of the International Meeting of Jurists.
