HONG KONG: China signed a convention on Friday setting up a global mediation body in Hong Kong, which aims to be comparable to organizations such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
\nBeijing has taken a more proactive approach in international affairs in recent years, expanding its influence in global bodies such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization \u2014 especially as the United States has taken the opposite direction under President Donald Trump.
\nThe move is also being seen as an attempt to shore up Hong Kong\u2019s reputation as a leading place to conduct business, after Beijing\u2019s imposition of a wide-ranging national security law in 2020 shook confidence in the impartiality of the city\u2019s legal system.
\nInitiated by Beijing, the establishment of the International Organization for Mediation Convention (IOMed) was co-signed by 31 other \u201clike-minded\u201d countries ranging from Serbia and Pakistan to Papua New Guinea and Venezuela.
\n\u201cThe birth of IOMed will help transcend the zero-sum mentality of \u2018win or lose\u2019, promote the amicable resolution of international disputes, and build more harmonious international relations,\u201d said China\u2019s foreign minister Wang Yi, who presided over the signing.
\nHong Kong\u2019s government said IOMed will be the first intergovernmental body dedicated to mediation, while Wang said it would \u201cfill a gap in the field.\u201d
\nMediation is when a neutral third party intervenes into a dispute to help two sides negotiate a jointly acceptable resolution to a conflict, as opposed to, for example, political bargaining or litigation.
\nThe body will mediate disputes between countries, between countries and individuals from another country, and between private international entities.
\nIOMed \u201cis on a par with\u201d the United Nations\u2019 ICJ and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, said the Hong Kong government.
\nOne of the latter\u2019s more well-known rulings was in favor of the Philippines against China over territorial claims in the South China Sea.
\nBeijing refused to take part in the proceedings and has ignored the judgment.
\nPaul Lam, Hong Kong\u2019s secretary for justice, wrote in an article that IOMed\u2019s establishment came as \u201chostile external forces are attempting to de-internationalize and de-functionalize\u201d Hong Kong.
\nIOMed will start operating by the end of this year or early 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HONG KONG: China signed a convention on Friday setting up a global mediation body in Hong Kong, which aims to be comparable to organizations such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Beijing has taken a more proactive approach in international affairs in recent years, expanding its influence in global bodies such as the United …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":81801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81802,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81787\/revisions\/81802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}