Guest Writers, Main Stories, TOC On Site, TOC Reports - Monday, October 22, 2007 0:36 - 0 Comments

TOC Feature: participating in the IBA

By Jeth Lee

Thanks to the kind sponsorship of TOC, I was able to attend the much talked about Rule of Law Symposium organised by the International Bar Association last Friday despite it being priced at a restrictively high 60 Sterling pounds (citizen journalists don’t get paid very well).

The symposium was a full-day programme that was widely hyped to be able to provide a clearer perspective of what the status and meaning of the rule of law are in Asia, especially in the host state of Singapore. With a stellar cast of speakers comprising Deputy Prime Minister Professor S. Jayakumar, Judge Hisashi Owada, a former Japanese Ambassador to the UN and Justice Albie Sachs, a renowned human rights and anti-apartheid campaigner, one could expect no less.

However, judging from the aims of the symposium and what transpired, I must say that the symposium has largely failed.

Continue…