As organised by the Legal and Judicial Training Centre, the Seminar on Mutual Legal Assistance - Adoption will start tomorrow, March 21st, at 17:00, in the Multi- function Room of the Law Reform and International Law Bureau located on Alameda Dr. Carlos D' Assumpção, n. ° 398, CNAC Building, 6th floor. This seminar is part of the 2nd Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao, and will have as its keynote speaker Dr. Anne-Marie Flo, Master in Law (LLM), from the Catholic University of Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), Belgium, and Lawyer of the Central Federal Authority of Belgium. This event will be conducted in English, with simultaneous translation into Cantonese and Portuguese. During the five sessions that will take place daily between 17:00 and 19:00 until March 25th, the following topics will be discussed: 1. Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption of May 29th,1993;
2. Guide of Good Practices;
3. Practical cases: Colombia, the Philippines, Thailand, South Africa and Ethiopia;
4. Legal framework and practice in EU-member states. The main content of this seminar is to explore the reality aspect of inter-country adoption practices and to bring forth constructive opinions on the subject. In this seminar, the child protection and adoption mechanism of the Macao SAR as well as the corresponding legal practices will be discussed in depth through an analysis of the different modes of practices in different countries. The 2nd Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao, which incorporates this seminar, has as its main objective the “Consolidation of the Macao Legal System” and is going to take place until December 2012. The execution of the Co-operation Programme is coordinated by the Law Reform and International Law Bureau, together with many entities and public departments of the Macao SAR, namely the Legal and Judicial Training Centre, the Legal Affairs Bureau, the Economic Services, the Financial Services Bureau and the Institute of European Studies of Macao.
