Romanian student arguing her team's position concerning a refugee case. Photo: Petrica Mihalache/ Ministry of Defense

Romanian Students
Develop Interest in Refugee Law

"Until this contest, I didn't know that refugee cases could be so complex, as we don't talk about it much at university," said one of the law students, participating in the Humanitarian and Refugee Law contest held in Romania in early December.

Students from nine universities from all over the country gathered in Bucharest to participate in this event that is quite novel in Romania. It was organized by the „Nicolae Titulescu" University, in collaboration with UNHCR, the Romanian Red Cross, the National Commission for Humanitarian Law and the Center for Humanitarian Law within the Romanian Army.
One of the most debated assignments involved an asylum seeker from imaginary Ipsotera who, due to the close family relations between her and the country's president, Ter Minator, was able to safely conduct drug trafficking activities. Until one day, due to internal conflicts, the President lost his powers. In addition to this, one of her drug transports was intercepted by the Interpol, thus putting her in danger of being killed by a rival organized crime group in Isoptera.

At the beginning, the students had been provided with a case study involving several fictitious countries. Every assignment they were subsequently given represented a series of new developments which they were required to interpret from a legal standpoint. Each such task was introduced through a role-play acted out by members of the jury.
Every participating university sent a team of three students and a professor - coordinator to prove their legal knowledge, public speaking and debate skills to a jury of six specialists. A UNHCR representative was also part of this jury and actively participated in conceiving the assignments.

Using their knowledge of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, as well as other international human rights instruments, the students had to debate over Refugee Law concepts, such as the right to apply for asylum, the principle of non-refoulement, non-state agents of persecution, internal flight alternatives, and others.
"The material that was made available to us by the UN Refugee Agency came in very handy when we were arguing our case, because we could actually use the refugee terminology it contained," said a participant from the "Nicolae Balcescu" Land Forces Academy in Sibiu.

Jury members were satisfied with the outcome: "Romanian students are showing more and more interest in Refugee Law. Compared to last year, we also noticed a significant improvement in the level of knowledge among contestants."

In 2009, the Refugee Law contest was held for the second time. It is to become yearly event.