Ref: 55/ 2013

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
will organize the International Criminal Law Moot Court Competition in the Gaza
Strip on 07 and 08 September 2013. The International Criminal Law Moot Court is
a project implemented for the second consecutive year by PCHR, funded by the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and sponsored by the UN Office of the
High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in cooperation with al-Azhar
University, the Islamic University and Palestine University.

A local jury will supervise the competition and
select the winning team, as the international judges and experts who were
expected to join the jury were not able to enter the Gaza Strip due to the
latest political and security conditions in Egypt.

During the competition, 30 students, who were
selected according to excellence criteria from the three universities, will
compete against one another. Each group includes 10 students who will be
divided into 2 teams: the prosecution and defense. The competing groups will
address legal cases through oral arguments and written submissions in order to
convince the jury in the context of a fictional criminal case.

PCHR inaugurated the Moot Court Project for
this year on 30 January 2013, after which, the targeted students received
professional legal training for 8 months. The training that was supervised by 3
legal experts tackled topics related to the international humanitarian law
(IHL) and human rights. Moreover, international legal experts visited the Gaza
Strip and trained the students in the context of their professional experience
on the provisions of the international law at the theoretical and practical
levels.

It should be noted the Moot Court Competition
is unique. It targets law students in the Gaza Strip universities during the
scholastic year in order to enable them understand the IHL, international
criminal law and international human rights law. Furthermore it is planned to
enhance the students’ skills and promote their legal abilities relevant to use
the law.

PCHR had the initiative to implement the first
Moot Court Project in the Gaza Strip in 2012 as part of its efforts to transfer
its experience throughout years of litigation in order to expand the field of
knowledge.