On 24 April 2017, the Legal Counsel of the United Nations, Mr. Serpa Soares, visited Quito, Ecuador, to participate in the inaugural ceremony of the Conference of Ministers of Justice of the Ibero-American Countries (COMJIB) and delivered a keynote address. The Secretary-General of the COMJIB, Mr. Arkel Benítez Mendizábal, as well as other participants expressed their wish to promote cooperation between the United Nations and the COMJIB. In this regard, on 13 December 2016, the General Assembly decided to invite the COMJIB to participate in the sessions and the work of the General Assembly in the capacity of observer and requested the Secretary-General to take the action necessary to implement the resolution. The meeting in Quito was an opportunity to strengthen the links between both organizations and to identify questions of mutual interest to work together in the next months. The Secretary-General of the COMJIB displayed special interest in developing goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular the provision of access to justice. During the inaugural ceremony, the Minister of Justice, Human Rights and Worship of Ecuador, Ms. Ledy Zúñiga Rocha, awarded the United Nations with the Ministry of Justice’s honours, for its work on the promotion of peace and justice.