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A team of the Department of Law, East West University has emerged as the Runner-Up of the 14^th Henry Dunant Memorial Moot Court Competition, Bangladesh National Rounds 2023. The National Rounds of the 14^th Henry Dunant Memorial Moot Court Competition was organized by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) in collaboration with the Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB). It was held on the premises of IUB, Dhaka. The competition took place from 5^th to 7th October 2023. It is a prestigious moot and has been ranked in the top two national moot competitions in Bangladesh. It has been held since 2005 with the aim of promoting the study of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) amongst university students in the Asia and Pacific region including Bangladesh.

This year a total of 30 teams participated in the competition, representing different public and private universities in the country. It is the largest national round of the Henry Moot Competition till now. The competition had four segments, i.e., preliminary, quarter-final, semi-final and final. Each segment had two rounds. The EWU team consisted of RKM Rabin Ahmed, Tanzila Islam, and Saima Haque along with Ms. Nadia Rahaman, Senior Lecturer, Department of Law, East West University, an accomplished legal expert with extensive moot court experience serving as the coach. The EWU team made history by securing the second position in a major national moot for the very first time from EWU. EWU faced the University of Dhaka in the Finals. In the Finals, the bench consisted of Justice Naima Haider, Justice Khizir Ahmed Chowdhury, Hon’ble Justices of the High Court Division, and Rtd. Brigadier General Muhammad Sajjad Siddique. After a gruesome battle of arguments, Q/As, rebuttals and surrebuttals, the EWU team emerged as the runner-up.

It is noteworthy that, each year top two teams qualify to participate in the Regional Rounds where the South-Asian countries compete against one another and then the top four from the regionals qualify for the Asia-Pacific Rounds where representatives from around twenty-four Asian and Pacific region countries participate. The Asia-Pacific Round is held in Hong Kong and is known as the Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot which is also a very prestigious one among all IHL Moots around the world. Unfortunately, this year the regional rounds will not be held.

The EWU team gratefully acknowledges and appreciates the unconditional assistance of the intern researchers Pospita Akter, Radia Nowshin, and the Moot Committee Members, especially Md. Pizuar Hossain, Senior Lecturer, Department of Law, EWU, as well as throughout support and guidance from Dr. Md. Mehedi Hasan, Chairperson and Assistant Professor, Department of Law, EWU, and Dr. Muhammad Ekramul Haque, Professor and Adviser, Department of Law, EWU.