LOME, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The 24th meeting of the International Conference of advocates (CIB) was opened here on Friday in the Togolese capital under the theme "Solidarity for rights."

Togolese president Faure Gnassingbe presided over the opening ceremony of the five-day meeting which brought together 400 participants coming from about 30 French speaking countries at the Lome Conference Center.

The participants included members of government, parliament and other Togolese public institutions, the representatives of the Francophone advocates' conference, the diplomatic representatives and the representatives from international organizations.

The Lome meeting is meant to discuss the central theme of "judicial aid" and the "children's rights." These two sub-themes are motivated by the absence of judicial aid in terms of the state assistance to the advocates so that they can help the poor and the powerless to have access to justice.

According to the Togolese head of state, due to the high fees charged on the justice procedures, many of the powerless people are constrained not to go and get the value of their rights before courts and tribunals.

He described it as "a discriminatory situation" and announced the decision to create a fund for judicial aid.

The management of this fund will be entrusted with the advocates' body.?