ICC Moot Court Competition 2017 - Spanish edition, 2 June 2017

On 2 June 2017, the University of Externado (Colombia) won the final round of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Moot Court Competition, Spanish version, held in ICC Courtroom I in The Hague (Netherlands). The Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (Dominican Republic) and the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina) won, respectively, second and third place. The Best Speaker award went to Guiliana Isabel Morano of the University of Buenos Aires. Members of the winning team are Natalia Silva Santaularia, Valentina del Sol Salazar Rivera, Paloma Ivana Morales Carrillo, and Ricardo Arenas Ávila. Seventeen teams from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Dominica Republic, Mexico, Peru and Spain 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. Today's final round took place before a bench composed of ICC Judge Olga Herrera Carbuccia and ICC Legal Officers Cynthia Chamberlain and Alejandro Kiss. 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. The fifth 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 VII Ibero-American Week of International Justice held in The Hague from 29 May to 9 June 2017. 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.