"The crimes of any descriptions are committed by a man not by any abstract entity," said Chief Justice Syed JR Mudassir Husain at the workshop organised by Odhikar, a human rights group, at the city's BRAC Centre Inn.

"There can be no peace without justice, no justice without law and no meaningful law without a court," Mudassir added.

Terming criminal liabilities as personal liabilities, he said, "We must not be happy seeing that crimes against humanity have been quite largely committed and most of the perpetrators of those heinous crimes have gone unpunished."

Barrister Mainul Hosein said frequent human rights violations occur in Bangladesh in the process of political programmes.

"In the name of politics and rights one does not hesitate to violate human rights of many others in Bangladesh," said Attorney General AF Hassan Ariff.

"There are formal and non-formal perpetrators violating human rights at national and international levels."

On the United States' reservation in ratification of the ICC Statute, Ariff said it was a challenge not only to Bangladesh but also to the entire international community.

He said Bangladesh, yet to ratify the Statute, should raise any hindrances to it in UN debates.

"We also need to change our mindset, resolve our internal discords keeping present day world context in mind."

A total of 139 states have so far signed the Statute while 93 have ratified it. The Statute came into force on July 1, 2002 after 60th ratification.

Eighteen judges have been elected to the court, which has so far received two cases referred by Uganda and Congo.

Abdul Moyeen Khan, minister for science and technology, Ziaur Rahman Khan, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the foreign ministry, Ahmed Ziauddin of Asian Network for the International Criminal Court, Saira Rahman of Acid Survivors Foundation and Tasneem Siddiqui of Odhikar were present, among others.