Andrés Bellos Catholic National University of Venezuela wins 7th ICC Moot Court Competition, Spanish version
29 May 2019, the Andrés Bellos Catholic National University (Venezuela) won the final round of the 7th Edition of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Moot Court Competition, Spanish version, held in ICC Courtroom I in The Hague (Netherlands). The Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico) and the Andres Hurtado University (Chile) won, respectively, second and third places. The award for the Best Speaker went to Bianca Valentina Labraña Palma of the Andres Hurtado University (Chile).
Members of the winning team are Edith Lorena González Jiménez, Georges Abraham Mussa Quijada, Jhomar Alexander López Salmerón, and Raúl Uriel Arcángel La Cruz Gomes. Today’s final round took place before a bench composed of ICC Judge Luz del Carmen Ibañez Carranza, presiding, and ICC legal officers Alejandro Kiss and Juan Pablo Calderón Meza. The teams competed on a fictitious case, presenting oral arguments in the roles of the Office of the Prosecutor, Defence and Legal Representatives of Victims, which were web-streamed live on the Court’s official website. After a break for deliberations, the bench announced their decision and an awards ceremony was held for all participants.
Nineteen teams from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela participated in this year’s simulation exercise on the applicable law and jurisprudence of the ICC, of which 9 teams participated in the semi-finals during the Iberoamerican Week of International Justice in The Hague.
The seventh edition of the Spanish version of the ICC Moot Court Competition is organised by the Ibero-American Institute for Peace, Human Rights and International Justice (IIH), with the institutional support of the International Criminal Court, and in the context of the 9th edition of the Ibero-American Week of International Justice held in The Hague from 22 May to 6 June 2019.
In the context of its Academic Programme, the ICC supports the organisation of ICC Moot Court Competitions in Chinese, English, Russian and Spanish, with a view to also support Arabic and French versions in the future. These initiatives play a critical role in galvanising interest in the Court’s work with academic communities as well as in enhancing promotion and respect for international criminal law.
