16-11-2010 Press release
Manila (ICRC) – Fourteen law schools from across the Philippines are about to debate international humanitarian law cases in the country’s largest moot court competition. The competition, which will be held at San Sebastian Academy from November 17-19, will feature a “role-play challenge project” in which students will demonstrate first-hand how international humanitarian law, designed to limit the impact of war, can be applied to practice.
Anastasia Isyuk, ICRC communications officer, said: “In 2010 we took the moot court competition to the next level by adding a role-playing challenge. The goal of the role-playing was to ‘bring legal ‘Beyond the books’, we want students to be able to apply IHL to the real world. This also gives them an opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of an ICRC delegate, military officer, journalist or from the standpoint of civilians caught in armed conflict.” The
role-playing challenge was based on the format of the “Jean Pictet International Humanitarian Law Competition”. The “Jean Pictet International Humanitarian Law Competition” is a competition for students of internationally renowned universities and military academies. While mooting is a challenging and demanding competition, Ms Ishuk said role-playing helps foster camaraderie among the country’s would-be lawyers.
This year, 9 provincial law schools (University of Athenord Davao, University of Saint Louis, University of Silliman, University of Southwest, University of Batangas, University of Cebu, University of San La Salle, University of San Carlos, University of Javier Ateneo de Cagayan) and 5 law schools in the Manila region (Ateneo University, Far Eastern University, Lyceum University of the Philippines, San Beida Law School and Tiliman University of the Philippines) will participate in the moot court Have a go.
Judges in the 2010 moot court competition included Supreme Court Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, law professor Harry Roque and ICRC regional legal adviser Richard De Gagne (Richard Desgagne).
Evecar Cruz-Ferrer, legal adviser to the ICRC, said: “We hope that the moot court will continue to grow, as it is an important training platform for future lawyers and policy makers. The competition is One of the approaches we take is to plant the seeds in these bright young students who may
one day become the backbone of active support for IHL in the Philippines.” The moot court competition is held annually and is organized by the ICRC, Philippine Organized jointly by the Cross Society, the Federation of Law Schools of the Philippines, and the Supreme Court of the Philippines.
The champion team will be sent to Hong Kong by the ICRC to participate in the regional finals in 2011. Last year’s champion team was Ateneo University, who also finished in the top five of the accusations in the Regional Finals.
The ICRC is a neutral and impartial organization with a very long history of responding to the needs of people adversely affected by armed conflict and other situations of violence. As defenders of international humanitarian law, the organization reminds all parties to a conflict of their obligations to protect civilian life from harm and to treat civilians with dignity and humanity.
For more information, please contact: Public Information Officer,
ICRC East Asia Regional Delegation : Hu Xiangqun Tel: +86 10 85323290 Evecar Cruz-Ferrer, ICRC Manila, +63 918 912 5706 Philippe Stoll, ICRC Geneva, +41 22 730 31 40 or +41 79 536 92 49
