IHL moot held at Dhaka

In order to nurture and facilitate the journey of young legal minds into the complex realm of international humanitarian law, a National Moot Court Competition was successfully held at the Canadian University of Bangladesh from 20-22 October, 2016. Jointly organized by the Bangladesh chapter of the Asian Society of International Law (AsianSIL Bangladesh) and the Canadian University of Bangladesh, the competition was participated by 23 law schools from public and private universities across the country.

Usually, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) organises this competition regularly after the name of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross movement and last year, the 11th Henry Dunant Memorial Moot competition was organised jointly by the ICRC and the AsianSIL Bangladesh. Due to unavoidable circumstances, ICRC was quite unable to sponsor the competition this year and therefore, decided not to organise this event. Considering the enthusiasm of young law students of both public and private universities, the AsianSIL Bangladesh took the initiative to organise the competition and the Canadian University of Bangladesh, a newly launched private university, extended their generous supports to this end. Accordingly, this competition is not a part of the series of national rounds organised by the ICRC and thus not the 12th one. However, the organisers decided to pay tribute to the founder of the ICRC and hence, the moot competition was dedicated to the memory of Henry Dunant.

After the phases of long intense mooting, University of Chittagong emerged as the champion and State University of Bangladesh became the runner up. Psymhe Wadud from University of Dhaka bagged the Best Advocate (Best Mooter) award and Ms. Tyaba Tasmin of East West University won the Best Researcher award. Northern University won the Best Memorial award.

A special judges' bench comprised of Mr. Justice Hasan Foez Siddiqui, Hon'ble Judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court and Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission, Professor Dr. M. Rafiqul Islam, former Dean, Faculty of Law, Macquarie University, Australia and Brigadier General Sazzad Siddiqui, Judge Advocate General, Bangladesh Army adjudicated the Final Round. Besides, Hon'ble judges of the High Court Division presided over several rounds of the competition.

The valedictory session was chaired by Mr. Chowdhury Nafees Sarafat, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Canadian University of Bangladesh. Mr. Justice Hasan Foez Sidduiqi, Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission, was present as the chief guest. Professor Dr. Borhan Uddin Khan, Chairman of the Department of Law, University of Dhaka and the President of AsianSIL Bangladesh and Professor Dr. James Gomes, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Canadian University of Bangladesh along with the other judges of the final round were also present as special guests. In their remarks, the speakers emphasised the importance of 'learning by doing' or practical legal education. The depth of research of the participants in the competition was highly praised by the judges of the final round, and suggestions for further improvements in the whole legal academic movement were also made.

The programme ended with vote of thanks from Professor Dr. Md. Nazmuzzaman Bhuian, Vice President of AsianSIL Bangladesh.