International Bridges to Justice (IBJ) founder and CEO Karen Tse was invited to join the world’s foremost business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in January 2007 to discuss ways of creating fair and sustainable judicial systems in developing legal regimes and post-conflict nations.

She was invited by the Annual Meeting organisers to participate in a panel discussion on “Building Sustainable Post-Conflict Environments.” Other participants in the panel were Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, who gave opening remarks; Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva); Juan E. Méndez, President of the International Centre for Transitional Justice (USA); Sadako Ogata, President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Japan); Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch (USA); and Michael W. Spicer, CEO of Business Leadership South Africa. BBC World Affairs correspondent Jonathan Charles moderated the discussion.

Ms. Tse, highlighted the key role to be played by focusing simply on assisting countries with the resources and skills necessary to achieve the practical implementation of the laws that those countries have themselves passed.

“Ending torture is an economic issue as well as an ethical one,” says Tse. “Torture can be viewed as the least expensive form of interrogation and until corporations, criminal defenders, legal aid centers and governments step up to provide the resources and training to support more equitable judicial systems, torture will continue. Big business has a clear interest here. Without rule of law, attempts to bring developing nations into the fold of profitable global commerce will continue to fail.”