During the 6th and 7th of August, the Singapore Convention Signing Ceremony and Conference, jointly organized by United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and Singapore Ministry of Law, was held in Shangri-La Hotel Singapore. As a senior arbitrator in the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, an experienced mediator in Beijing Association for Alternative Dispute Resolution and the director of Beijing Lanpeng Law Firm, Mr. Qihuai Zhang was invited as a representative to attend and witness the historic signing ceremony with about 700 government officials, company executives, legal practitioners and academics around the world.
Singapore Prime Minister Mr. Lee Hsien Loong and UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Stephen Mathias delivered formal speeches. UN Secretary-General Mr. Antonio Guterres spoke through video as well. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Singapore Mr. Heng Swee Keat delivered the keynote speech at the general assembly dinner.
Speakers at the conference also included Justice Sherhanqin, Deputy President of the United Nations International Court of Justice, Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, CEO of Temasek International, Dr. Marty Natalegawa, former Foreign Minister of Indonesia; Professor Gabrielle Kaufmann-kohler, President of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration, and Judge Edward Torgbor, former high court judge of Kenya and visiting scholar at Oxford University.
The Singapore Convention on Mediation is the first international treaty named after Singapore under the UN framework, with the logo as a colorful Vanda Miss Joaquim, symbolling that countries gathered in the "little red dot"(the nickname of Singapore) to undertake a conversation, whose role is to effectively deal with international trade disputes and commercial disputes, and conclude commercial settlement agreement through mediation mechanism.
The Singapore Convention on Mediation was adopted by the UN general assembly last December. The Convention must be signed and ratified by at least three countries before it enters into force and applies only to commercial settlement agreements. Signatories to the Singapore Convention on Mediation shall enforce the settlement agreement reached within the relevant framework.Together with the New York Convention and the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements, the three conventions will establish a comprehensive framework for the implementation of international dispute settlement.
The main topic of the meeting is the signing of the Singapore Convention on Mediation, a new international convention to promote the cross-border commercial mediation. Forty-six countries including China, the United States, Singapore, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Uganda, Vanuatu, Brunei, Myanmar and Vietnam attended the signing ceremony.
