DHAKA: Speakers at a program said Bangladesh has comparatively progressed than any other county of the world in trying internationally recognized crimes.

Though the country signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, referred to as the Rome Statute, on 2010 but Bangladesh passed the International Crimes Act in 1973, they added.

They also said trial of the crimes, which are now considered internationally, Bangladesh made the law on the matter years earlier.

Trial of war crimes convicts began on 2009 according to the Act of 1973; although the 1973 Act is our own, it maintains the international standard, they added.

Speakers came up with the observations at a function on the occasion of International Criminal Justice Day at the foreign ministry in the city.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali in the chair, the function was addressed, among others, by law minister Advocate Anisul Haque and Prime Minister's political adviser HT Imam and National Human Rights Commission Chairman Mizanur Rahman.

Bangladesh is first country from South Asia to sign the Rome Statute in 1999 and took the initiative to accede to the Rome Statute in March 2010, making Bangladesh one of the first three South Asian countries to have done so.

BDST: 1602 HRS JUL 17, 2014