International Civil Aviation Day falls on December 7 and Aviation Law Forum on Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Relating to International Civil Aviation (Beijing Convention) was held in Xi’an on this very day. CAAC Deputy Administrator Lyu Erxue attended the forum and expressed that CAAC is ready to conduct in-depth exchanges and cooperation with professional research institutions from China and abroad and scholars and experts inside and outside the civil aviation industry in a more open-minded manner, making in-depth researches on legal issues related to Beijing Convention, accelerating China’ accession to it and assuring its effective implementation in China. Vice Governor of Shaanxi Province Chen Guoqiang attended the forum and delivered a speech.

The forum was co-sponsored by CAAC and Northwest University of Political Science and Law (NWUPL) aiming to deepen researches on legal rules and connotations of systems in the Beijing Convention and further promote China’s accession to it. Distinguished guests including Dong Chaojie, Deputy Director General of the Fourth Bureau of Legislation under Ministry of Justice and Yang Zongke, President of NWUPL, made remarks at the opening ceremony. Huang Jiefang, Director of Legal Affairs and External Relations Bureau and Sylvain Lefoyer, Deputy Director of Air Transport Bureau of ICAO, elaborated conclusive background of Beijing Convention and its impact on development of international aviation security policy. Scholars and experts from the aviation law circle made in-depth discussions on topics such as applicability and legal connection of core clauses of Beijing Convention, unlawful interferences by unruly passengers, supervision of drones, civil aviation flight risks above conflict zones. A total of over 150 people from Regional Administrations, Safety Supervision and Management Bureaus of CAAC, related departments and academic circles attended the forum.

Lyu Erxue indicated that Beijing Convention absorbed newly-reached principles and newly-achieved results of UN anti-terrorist conventions, reflecting development and trends of international anti-terrorist conventions, adding new crimes, making up for the gap and deficiencies in the previous aviation security convention system, offering effective means and strong legal assurance for fighting against international terrorist actions that threat civil aviation and receiving worldwide repercussions. With the active advocacy of ICAO, 26 countries have acceded to the Convention so far. The forum will play a positive role in promoting and strengthening civil aviation security, speeding up improvement of civil aviation legal system, proactive engagement in formulation of international civil aviation legislation, thereby contributing to pushing forward high-quality development of legal system of civil aviation security both in China and the world.

From August 30 to September 10 of 2010, ICAO held Diplomatic Conference on Aviation Security in Beijing, which adopted Beijing Convention. Beijing Convention has been the first convention named after a Chinese city and China is among the first batch of countries who sign it. Beijing Convention took effect on July 1, 2018. As a significant result of international aviation security law and regulation, the Convention provides strong grounds and guarantees on international law for combating terrorist activities and other crimes relating to civil aviation and assuring safety of lives and properties of air passengers.