The Chinese seminar on “New Visual Field of Contemporary International Criminal Law” together with the Experts Session and Regional ICC Campaign Meeting were held for the first time in Guiyang, Guizhou, China from 18-22 March 2006.

Guizhou University hosted 100 delegates from law faculties, criminal law societies, legal research institutes, provincial people’s Courts, prosecutors’ offices, public defendants’ groups, law students and representatives of the Supreme People’s Court.The Chinese seminar on “New Visual Field of Contemporary International Criminal Law” together with the Experts Session and Regional ICC Campaign Meeting were held for the first time in Guiyang, Guizhou, China from 18-22 March 2006.

Guizhou University hosted 100 delegates from law faculties, criminal law societies, legal research institutes, provincial people’s Courts, prosecutors’ offices, public defendants’ groups, law students and representatives of the Supreme People’s Court.

Representatives from the FA secretariat were Ms. Niza Concepcion, who facilitated the session on the Jurisdiction of the ICC, and Ms. Chian Yew Lim, who served as general translator.

The meeting focused on the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the importance of China’s accession to the Rome Statute.

Judge Sang-Hyun Song from Korea, the only Asian representative among the eighteen (18) judges in the ICC delivered the keynote address to the group. He focused on the Rome Statute and why China should support it:

“China is a leader both on this continent and in the world in international justice, and has demonstrated its leadership through its continued ratification of treaties and conventions that establish an international legal framework for protecting human rights and ending impunity for the world’s gravest crimes.

“……China was active in Rome to ensure that in the negotiations the Statute was based on the complementarity principle, and to establish a Court that was characterized by independence, impartiality, effectiveness and universality. Our continent provides the ICC with a great potential for growth.”.

It would therefore send a strong signal if a country like China joined the Rome Statute. China, a most respected, influential and responsible member of the international community, could thus demonstrate once again its strong commitment to the noble causes of the Rome Statute and to the peaceful resolution of international conflicts.”

Professor Ling Yan, from the Chinese University of Political Science and Law, in her presentation on the impact of the jurisdiction of the ICC on China, asserted that:

“If combating impunity means assuring proper prosecution for international crimes then we should support it by all means. China anyway has to continue to reform its legal regime to address impunity. Doing so in conjunction with ICC accession would be the best way”

The event was organized by the ICC working group in China, led by Dr. Zhao Bing-Zhi, President of the Criminal Law Research Committee of the China Law Society and Ms. Wang Xiu-mei, Associate Professor at the College for Criminal Law Science at Beijing Normal University.

It was co-sponsored by the NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC), its liaison office in Asia (CICC-Asia) and the Guizhou University.