ICRC announces winners of International Humanitarian Law essay contest

AMMAN — The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Monday announced the names of the winning students of the first International Humanitarian Law (IHL) essay competition.

The competition was designed to bring together law students from Jordanian universities and engage them in relevant discussions regarding IHL, in addition to offering them an academic platform for legal debates, according to an ICRC statement sent to The Jordan Times.

The competition’s first edition was focused on missing persons, and raising awareness of the issue in conflict zones, the statement added.

In her keynote remarks, head of ICRC delegation in Jordan Sarah Avrillaud highlighted that “the competition has sought to… enhance students’ knowledge of the role of the ICRC, especially when it comes to the missing persons topic.”

Conflict-related disappearances can be “dreadful enough for the individuals concerned”. For this reason, the subject of missing persons has been chosen to be the main focus of the first IHL essay competition, she said.

The ICRC in Jordan works to help clarify the fate of missing people by documenting situations where people have gone missing in Syria, she noted.

Additionally, the ICRC supports IHL teaching in Jordanian universities, through building the capacities of IHL lecturers and distributing IHL resources in Arabic.

Yara Abadi, a student from the Applied Science Private University, earned first place for her essay titled “Missing Persons Under the Umbrella of International Humanitarian Law”, followed by Bushra Kayed from the University of Jordan and Amal Mousa from Balqa Applied University.

As for the postgraduate students category, Juman Khatib, a student from the Applied Science Private University, won first place for her essay titled “Missing Persons”.