The meeting held in Fukuoka Japan was attended by 600 delegates from around the globe. All aspects of forensic and legal medicine were addressed at the many lecture and hands-on sessions presented during the meeting.

During the meeting, forensic scientists from the West and East shared academic experiences while enjoying fellowship and making new friends.

In the session dedicated to age estimation and personal identification, the invited speakers Prof’s Bernitz, Schmeling and Ubelaker gave informative overviews in their respective lectures. It was heartening to see full auditoriums during their lectures. Several other lectures and posters were presented by forensic dentists, mostly from Asia.

Although the general theme of the conference was “The new stage of Legal Medicine - from Asia to the World”, most keynote speakers dedicated their talks to aspects of Human Rights and Quality Control. The message was clear, no one should be practicing forensic science in violation of the United Nations declaration of Human Rights (1948 General assembly resolution 217A) and carrying out any procedures, which are not in accordance with Best International Practice and internationally recognised quality control parameters.