On the afternoon of September 2, 2023, the 4th "China Arbitration Week· Women in Arbitration Forum" (the "Forum") was successfully held in Beijing, co-organized by the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), Women in Arbitration (WIA), Center for International Arbitration of Peking University, Stevenson, Wong& Co., and Huamao& Guigu Law Firm. Yu Jianlong, Deputy President of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade(CCPIT), Gao Zicheng, President of All China Lawyers Association, and Yang Ling, Deputy Secretary General of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center (HKIAC) and a member of the WIA, attended the Forum and delivered speeches.

（Venue of the Forum）

Xie Changqing, Deputy President of CIETAC Arbitration Court, presided over the opening ceremony. She said that the Women in Arbitration Forum has attracted much attention and compliments since its launch, and has become an important platform and brand for women arbitrators to showcase their styles, communicate and discuss, promote career advancement, as well as create an ecosystem of diversity in international arbitration.

（Xie Changqing, Deputy President of CIETAC Arbitration Court, presided over the opening ceremony.）

Yu Jianlong, the Deputy President of CCIPT said in his speech that women are important players in promoting economic and social development, and that gender equality and women's empowerment are important issues in the work of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and that it is a common value pursued by the international arbitration community to break down the gender barriers and allow more women to share the opportunities of arbitration development. Since its establishment, the Women in Arbitration Forum has strived to advocate the diversity of international arbitration and actively respond to the practical concerns of female legal professionals, and has become a brand activity and an important platform for women arbitrators to cooperate and exchange. He pointed out that women have made crucial contributions to the development of China's international economic, trade and arbitration, however, women's participation, discourse and representation in the field of international arbitration still need to be further enhanced. CCPIT and CIETAC will, as always, attach importance to women and provide an internationalized and professional work and exchange platform for female arbitrators.

（Yu Jianlong, Deputy President of CCPIT, was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony.）

Gao Zicheng, President of the All China Lawyers Association, stated in his online speech that arbitration is an important mechanism for resolving legal relationships in investment and financing, and he emphasized that the arbitration community should make joint efforts to enhance the credibility of arbitration and promote the development of the cause of arbitration. Yang Ling, Deputy Secretary General of HKIAC and member of the WIA, reviewed the efforts and achievements of WIA in recent years in her speech, and she expressed her expectation that there would be more people paying attention to and helping develop women's arbitration.

（Gao Zicheng, President of All China Lawyers Association and  Yang Ling, Deputy Secretary General of HKIAC and member of WIA, were delivering speeches at the opening ceremony.）

This forum has three sessions, the theme of the first session was “Manner and Arbitration”, which was chaired by Cao Lijun, partner of Zhong Lun Law Firm, member of SIAC board of directors, Deputy Director of Professional Committee on Arbitration and Lawyer Mediation of All-China Lawyers' Association. Dr. Mariel Dimsey, Secretary General of HKIAC, Tao Jingzhou, an independent arbitrator and lawyer of the Court of Appeal of Paris, France, and Mao Xiaofei, Deputy Director of lab of country-specific approaches of Institute of International Law of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, discussed the topic of the diversity of the appointment of arbitrators from the perspectives of gender, culture, and nationality, etc. respectively.

（From left to right: Cao Lijun, Dr. Mariel Dimsey, Tao Jingzhou, Mao Xiaofei ）

The second session, entitled "Arbitration and Protection of Investment and Financing", was hosted by Yao Yu, Counsel of Huamao& Guigu Law Firm. Jiang Qiuju, Director of Case Handling Division of Beijing Arbitration Commission/Beijing International Arbitration Center, Huang Rui, former General Legal Counsel of China General Consulting & Investment Co，Ltd., Xu Kaiyi, Partner of Stevenson & Wong Law Firm and member of WIA, and Zhang Mei, Partner of Dispute Resolution Department of King & Wood Mallesons, fully explored and discussed the professional issues of procedural and substantive hotspots in the investment and financing cases combined with their own work experience in the second session. 

With the theme of “Seminar on Hot Issues in Arbitration Practice”, the third session was presided over by Ma Jun, Chief Judge of the Civil Division of the Fourth Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing Municipality.

(Beijing International Commercial Court).

Fu Yulin, Director of Peking University International Arbitration Research Center, Zhu Ke, Senior Judge of the third rank of the Supreme People's Court, Tan Jinghui, Director of Jundu Law Firm, Zhang Yan, Professor of Law School of Beijing Technology and Business University, and Tian Ruihua, Director of the Commercial Arbitration Law Committee of Beijing Lawyers Association, and founding partner of Huamao & Guigu Law Firm, gave lectures on the nature of arbitration and res judicata of awards, The practice of judicial review of arbitration, engineering arbitration, fund cases and the validity of arbitration agreement were exchanged and discussed.

（From left to right:  Fu Yulin, Zhu Ke, Tan Jinghui, Zhang Yan, Tian Ruihua, Ma Jun）

Zhang Lixia, Director of the Arbitration and Lawyer Mediation Professional Committee of the National Lawyers Association, Co-Chairman of the WIA, Founding Partner and the Director of Beijing Huamao& Guigu Law Firm, was delivering the closing speech.

（Zhang Lixia was delivering closing speech）

The forum attracted dozens of female arbitrator representatives, judges and industry experts from the Supreme People's Court, arbitration institutions, arbitrators, lawyers, enterprises, universities and other fields, with up to 3,000 online and offline participants. The forum was extremely warmly received and has profound significance for the development of women's arbitration career.