On 19 and 20 October, Dr. ZHU Dan was invited to attend the annual international conference “Nuremberg Forum” held by International Nuremberg Principles Academy in Germany. The Nuremberg Forum 2018 entitled “20th Anniversary of the Rome Statute: Law, Justice and Politics” took place in the Courtroom 600 in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, where historical Nazi War Trials were held after World War II.

The conference paid tribute to the 20th Anniversary of the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). It critically examined some key aspects and developments at the ICC, inter alia, the making of the Rome Statute, criteria relating to case selection and length of proceedings, role of victims’ participation and reparation in the proceedings of the court, the engagement of states with the court and future landscape of the ICC in the next 20 years. Dr. ZHU Dan was invited to speak on a panel about “State Engagement and Disengagement with the ICC” chaired by Prof. Carsten Stahn (Leiden University). Other panelists include Ambassador David Scheffer (Northwestern University, former U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues), Judge Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov (former Judge, International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda) and Professor Erika de Wet (University of Pretoria). The panel discussed current manifestations of state disengagement and how best to approach universal ambition of the Rome Statute, and to promote and bolster state engagement.

This annual forum brought together more than 150 leading international experts, scholars and practitioners from the field, including judges, prosecutors and decision-makers who have considerable weight in the future development of the ICC. German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas and the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda delivered the keynote addresses. Other speakers of the conference include Judge Bertram Schmitt (International Criminal Court), Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova (Kosovo Specialist Chambers, formerly International Criminal Court), Judge Sang-Hyun Song (former Judge, President of the International Criminal Court), Judge Philippe Kirsch (former Judge, President of the International Criminal Court), Judge Anita Ušacka (former Judge,  International Criminal Court), Judge Navi Pillay (formerly, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; former Judge, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court), Prosecutor Serge Brammertz (United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals), Ambassador Hans Corell (formerly United Nations), Ambassador Christian Wenaweser (Mission of Liechtenstein to the UN), and Professor William Schabas (Middlesex University London).