The Henry Dunant Memorial Vernacular Moot Court Competition in Tamil – 2022

The University of Jaffna and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Sri Lanka signed the Memorandum of Understanding on 28^th November 2022 for organizing the Henry Dunant Memorial Vernacular Moot Court Competition in Tamil – 2022. The primary objective of the competition was to explore the knowledge in International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law and to enhance the application and advocacy skills which are required for practicing in the International Criminal Court. The medium of the competition was Tamil. The applications were called to all National Universities of Sri Lanka offering Bachelor of Laws Degree Programme. The Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, Department of Legal Studies, Open University of Sri Lanka and Department of Law, University of Jaffna have registered the competitions. Moot problem developed by the ICRC was released on 1^st December 2022. The registered teams were given deadline on 15^th December 2022 for submitting written submissions. In between, the ICRC and the Department of Law jointly organized a workshop for giving training on oral pleadings for the teams registered on 13^th December 2022.  The Moot Court Competition was held on 20^th December 2022. Mr.V.T.Thamilmaran, Retired Professor and Former Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, Mr.S.Selvakunapalan, Deputy Draftsman, Legal Draftsman Department, Mr.Sylvester Worthington, Attorney-at-Law, Communication Officer of the ICRC served as Judges for the final round of the competition. Mr.S.Anushankan, Attorney-at-Law, Ms.V.Prashanthi, Attorney-at-Law and Ms.K.Nalina, Attorney-at-Law served as Judges for the semi-final rounds. In the awarding ceremony, Professor S.Srisatkunarajah, Vice Chancellor, Prof.K.Suthakar, Dean of Faculty of Arts, Ms.Samindika Elkaduwa, the Legal Advisor of the ICRC, and Ms.Thushani Shayanthan,  Head of Department of Law addressed the gatherings and Ms.Purathani Mathanaranjan, Coordinator of the event concluded the event with vote of thanks. In the competition, the University of Colombo and University of Jaffna were qualified to final rounds.  The title of ‘Winner’ was awarded to the team of the University of Jaffna and the title of ‘Runners Up’ was awarded to the team of the University of Colombo. Mr.M.M.Aznee Ahamed (Reg No. 2019/L/002), Ms.F.Fathima Simrana (Reg No. 2019/L/058) and Ms.Renuja Thavapalaratnam (Reg No. 202/L/086) have represented the Department of Law, University of Jaffna. Ms.F.Fathima Simrana (Reg No. 2019/L/058) won the award of ‘Best Advocate’.