Heads of the Supreme Courts of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member nations are meeting in the Russian city of Sochi today to discuss cooperation.  

According to the press center of the Supreme Court of Tajikistan, the meeting participants are discussing issues related to reducing the terms and the number of pending cases at various levels of the judicial system, mechanism of pretrial settlement and application of conciliation procedures for resolving disputes

Heads of the SCO Supreme Courts will also discuss application by courts of national and international legal acts on protection of family rights of the child, including those related to protection of property rights of the child.   

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was founded at a Summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization currently has eight full members -- China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, India, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.  Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are four observer states, and SCO’s dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.  ACEAN, CIS, Turkmenistan and the United Nations are guest attendances.

The SCO now represents around 42% of the world’s population, 22% of its land area and around 20% of GDP.