Frits Kalshoven International Humanitarian Law Competition

The 14th edition of the Frits Kalshoven International Humanitarian Law Competition will be organised from Monday 8 to Friday 12 February 2021, which will exceptionally take place entirely online. This unique, English-spoken competition aims to bring inter-national humanitarian law to life through role plays, lectures and a moot court.

Because of the COVID-19 measures this edition will for the first time be held online. Taking into account the uncertainties of the pandemic we, as the organizers of the competition, want to maintain the FKC spirit as much as possible and try making it an equally challeng-ing and educational experience.

The lectures on topics related to international humanitarian law given by various pro-fessionals, as well as the final rounds of the moot court of the Competition will be open to the broader audience. All sessions will be conducted in English and participation is entirely free of charge. You are hereby warmly invited to attend these events.

Please register for each session separately before Sunday February 7 2021 21:00 via the following subscription box under the lecture(s) of your choice. You will receive the link to the online session(s) by e-mail at the latest one day beforehand.

Monday 8 February 2021

A lecture on the Qualification of armed conflicts will be given by Stéphane Kolanowski from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 12:45 to 13:45.

Tuesday 9 February 2021

A lecture on Mental health in armed conflict will be conducted by Dick Clomén from the Swedish Red Cross and dr. Alexander Breitegger from the ICRC from 09:00 to 10:00, followed by a lecture on Means and methods of warfare taught by Dhr. Mark Roorda, from The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service Arnhem from 11:15 to 12:15.

Wednesday 10 February 2021

A final lecture will be given on Explosive weapons in populated areas by dr. Eirini Giorgou from the ICRC from 11:15 to 12:15.

The core element of the Competition is the moot court, which will take place on the final day of the Competition. Through a fictional case, students are encouraged to rise to the top of their abilities and demonstrate their acquired expertise in IHL in front of a highly respected and experienced jury.

On Friday 12 February 2021 from 10:45 to 13:00 the final rounds of the moot court will take place, during which the two winning teams of the preliminary rounds will plead against one another before a professional Jury.

For the moot court final rounds, you will equally receive a summary of the case the stu-dents will plead, allowing you to get familiar with the context and facts beforehand.

If you have any questions or inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us via ihlcompetition@redcross.nl  (The Netherlands Red Cross) or humanitair.recht@rodekruis.be (Belgian Red Cross-Flanders).

The Frits Kalshoven Competition is named after one of the world’s most renowned ex-perts in international humanitarian law. Prof. dr. Frits Kalshoven (1924 – 2017) was Emeritus Professor public international law (University of Leiden) and of international humanitarian law (University of Groningen).

Besides academic work, professor Kalshoven was an advisor to the board of the Nether-lands Red Cross (1971-1993). Many students know Frits Kalshoven as the author of the book Constraints on the Waging of War, which is for many their first acquaintance with international humanitarian law.

We were very pleased to announce that during the 14th edition of the Frits Kalshoven Competition, no less than 10 teams of Dutch and Belgian universities competed against each other. These are the universities that were represented during the competition by a team of 3 students: