Three students: Sahr Emmanuel Joseph, Jestina Simba and Emmanuel S.F Kange from the Njala University have emerged winners of this year’s National Moot Court Competition on international Humanitarian Law (IHL) organised by the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society (SLRCS).
These students will be representing Sierra Leone at the forthcoming 8th Pan-African Moot Court Competition in Arusha, Tanzania.
As in previous years, six colleges from two universities participated in this fourth national mooting contest held at the Special Court. The competition involved two days of role-plays among Njala, Fourah Bay College, Milton Margai and International institute of Islamic Studies- Freetown; Eastern Polytechnic- from Kenema; and Northern Polytechnic- from Makeni.
The national IHL moot court competition is an annual training event on humanitarian law and principles intended for students and aimed at “taking law out of the books.”
During the competition, students were placed in an imaginary armed conflict situation. Assuming the roles of prosecution and defence lawyers, they dealt with allegations of violations of IHL and argued their case before a panel of judges, which included the president of the Special Court, Justice Gelaga-King.
The exercise allows students to acquire knowledge of this body of law while at the same time appreciating its practical relevance.