Moot Court competition on refugee law in Vilnius

It is a sunny Saturday morning in the capital of Lithuania. The silence in the white hallways in the Mykolas Romeris University is disturbed when some thirty students with slightly pale faces rush in to participate in the Moot court competition on refugee law. The participants are rehearsing their speeches with their team mates one last time, preparing to stand in front of the panel of judges to defend their positions and estimating their possible opponents.  

This is the second year the Moot court competition is arranged. It is organized by the Lithuanian Red Cross society. The organizer, Aiste Dumbryte, proudly mentions that it has gathered twice as many students as the previous year. Refugee law is not a compulsory subject in law studies in Lithuania, therefore few students are interested in it, or decide to work in this field.

- The main goal of this Competition is to encourage students to deepen their knowledge, to make them see that refugee law is an interesting and necessary area of law, and this might possibly inspire some of them to become specialists in refugee law, explains Aiste Dumbryte.

Besides motivating students to expand their knowledge in refugee law, public international law, and humanitarian law, the Moot court competition highlights concerns about the problems asylum-seekers face when trying to get protection.

– It encourages students to improve their argumentation, critical thinking, and public speaking skills. In this type of competitions students prepare themselves to take part in public discussions on social problems, present and defend their opinion, concludes Aiste Dumbryte.

The event was opened by the UNHCR Liaison Officer in Lithuania, Renata Kuleš, who for the second year in a row participated in the panel of judges.

- This event is a good opportunity for students to learn more about refugee problems and refugee law and for national experts in refugee law to meet. This year we received applications from friends of those who had participated in the Competition last year. As the event was an even bigger success this year, we will hopefully not lack candidates for next year’s competition. Further, we hope there are plans to continue and expand this activity in Lithuania, says Renata Kuleš.

Eight teams from two universities – Vilnius University and Mykolas Romeris University – gathered to test their knowledge in refugee law. From early morning until late in the evening, the teams met in two rounds to find out which ones will make it to the semi-finals. The best team representing the asylum-seeker met the best team representing the State in an exciting final. It was so close that the victory was decided by half a point. The team from Vilnius University came out as the winner. They received a price from UNHCR.
The case analysed in the Competition concerned the matter of granting refugee status or subsidiary protection to a male Iraqi asylum-seeker, who fled from his country of origin, via Turkey and Greece, to finally end up in the fictional Republic of Teislandia, a European Union Member State, where he applied for asylum.

The tricky questions posed by the panel of judges were the biggest challenge for the teams. From the very beginning it was obvious that the conversation between the Panel and the Counsellors was not going to be easy. The issues raising most attention and concerns in the case were the asylum-seeker’s employment as an interpreter in the US army, aspects of his belonging to a particular social group with a certain political opinion, and whether he suffered persecution or not. Other important concerns were the credibility of the asylum-seeker, why he refused to apply for asylum in Turkey and Greece and issues relating to determination of the recent situation in Iraq.

The competitors were required to show that their arguments were based on law, to provide and explain country of origin information, to assess the information on standards of credibility and adequacy, and to present the information as precisely as possible. If these requirements were not observed, the judges responded with an avalanche of questions.

After the final round the judges gave general comments and advised the teams. It was a good opportunity for the participants to learn about the weak sides of their performance, what could be improved and what to focus on in similar situations in the future.

- Increased knowledge about refugee status determination can lead to improved refugee integration. This also helps to change society’s attitude towards refugees, emphasizes the organizer Aiste Dumbryte. The participants agree that this Competition was “a very useful practice and test of knowledge.”

Often refugees cannot defend themselves in the eyes of society; therefore society needs tolerant and active members. This Moot court competition on refugee law shows that Lithuania has such members.

By Monika Dailidaite
26 March 2011

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