What is the eligibility level for participants in this competition?

This competition is designed for college-level students, providing an academic challenge tailored to their stage of legal education.

What is the format of this competition?

The competition is structured as a simulation, involving allegations and legal arguments in the field of international humanitarian law.

V Concurso Regional de Alegatos y Simulación en Derecho Internacional Humanitario

Q: Where is the V Regional Contest of Allegations and Simulation in International Humanitarian Law held?

The event takes place in the city of Buenos Aires, ARG, offering a regional hub for legal scholarship.

Dec 3–5, 2026Buenos Aires, ArgentinaIn-person

Registration open

The V Regional Contest of Allegations and Simulation in International Humanitarian Law is an academic competition designed for college students. Hosted in Buenos Aires, ARG, this event provides a platform for participants to engage with complex issues in international humanitarian law through simulated legal proceedings. The competition aims to develop participants' advocacy skills and deepen their understanding of the legal frameworks governing armed conflict. This regional contest emphasizes practical application of international humanitarian law, challenging students to analyze hypothetical scenarios, prepare legal arguments, and present their cases. It serves as a crucial training ground for future legal professionals who will navigate the intricate landscape of international law.

Committees & topics

Topics
International Humanitarian Law · Public International Law · International Criminal Law · International Human Rights Law · International Refugee Law

Why it matters

International humanitarian law (IHL) is a critical body of law that seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict for humanitarian reasons. Events like this regional contest are vital because they foster a new generation of legal experts who are well-versed in IHL principles and their application. As global conflicts continue to pose significant challenges, the ability to interpret and apply IHL becomes increasingly important for protecting civilians, ensuring humane treatment of combatants, and holding perpetrators accountable.

The simulation format allows students to grapple with real-world complexities in a controlled environment, preparing them for future roles in international organizations, government agencies, or non-governmental organizations. By simulating court proceedings, participants gain invaluable experience in legal research, argumentation, and public speaking, all of which are essential for effective advocacy in the field of international law. The focus on IHL is particularly relevant given ongoing global events and the continuous need for robust legal frameworks to address humanitarian crises.

How to prepare

Participants should focus on a comprehensive understanding of the core principles and treaties of international humanitarian law. This includes the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, customary international humanitarian law, and relevant jurisprudence from international tribunals. A strong grasp of these foundational texts will be essential for constructing compelling arguments.

Beyond substantive knowledge, effective preparation involves honing advocacy and legal research skills. Students should practice drafting legal memoranda, preparing oral arguments, and responding to challenging questions from judges. Familiarity with moot court procedures and the ability to work effectively as part of a team are also crucial for success in this type of simulation. Given the event's location in Buenos Aires, ARG, participants might also consider researching relevant regional perspectives or case law, if applicable to the competition's specific problem.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 3 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Argentina

As the host nation, ARG demonstrates a commitment to fostering expertise in international humanitarian law within the region.

Role in topic

ARG provides the venue for this regional competition, underscoring its role in promoting legal education and the study of international humanitarian law in South America. Its legal institutions and academic environment contribute to the intellectual discourse surrounding these critical issues.

Switzerland

CHE is the depositary state of the Geneva Conventions and a historical proponent of international humanitarian law.

Role in topic

While not directly participating in this regional contest, CHE's historical role in the development and promotion of international humanitarian law provides a foundational context for the competition. Its neutrality and humanitarian tradition are central to the principles being debated.

United States

USA has a complex relationship with international humanitarian law, often balancing humanitarian concerns with national security interests.

Role in topic

The legal interpretations and practices of states like the USA often feature prominently in discussions of international humanitarian law, particularly concerning issues such as targeting, detention, and the use of force. Understanding the perspectives of major global actors is crucial for a comprehensive grasp of IHL.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

International Humanitarian Law

International Humanitarian Law (IHL), also known as the law of armed conflict or jus in bello, is the body of rules that seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict by protecting persons not or no longer participating in hostilities and by restricting the means and methods of warfare. Its modern foundations were laid in 1864 with the first Geneva Convention, promoted by Henry Dunant and the nascent International Committee of the Red Cross after the Battle of Solferino. Subsequent developments — the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005 — built a comprehensive regime covering the wounded and sick, prisoners of war, civilians, and the conduct of hostilities, anchored in the principles of distinction, proportionality, precaution, and humanity. The core dispute in contemporary IHL is how a body of law designed largely around inter-state war applies to today's predominantly non-international armed conflicts, asymmetric warfare, occupation, and counterterrorism operations. States and tribunals continue to debate the legal classification of conflicts, the status of fighters in non-state armed groups, the scope of Common Article 3 and Additional Protocol II, the lawfulness of targeted killings, and the rules governing siege warfare, starvation as a method of war, and attacks on hospitals and humanitarian workers. Today IHL is under acute stress. Conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Yemen, the Sahel, and Myanmar have produced large-scale civilian harm and well-documented allegations of grave breaches. Emerging technologies — autonomous weapons systems, cyber operations, and military uses of artificial intelligence — challenge existing rules on responsibility, distinction, and meaningful human control. The ICRC, states, and international courts are engaged in ongoing efforts to reaffirm and clarify IHL, strengthen compliance mechanisms, and close gaps without reopening the 1949/1977 treaty texts.

Key players

Public International Law

Public International Law (PIL) is the legal system governing relations among states and other subjects of international law, including international organizations and, increasingly, individuals. Its modern architecture is traced to the Peace of Westphalia (1648) and the consolidation of sovereign equality, but its codification accelerated in the twentieth century with the League of Nations, the United Nations Charter (1945), the Statute of the International Court of Justice, and key treaties such as the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969) and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982). Its sources are codified in Article 38 of the ICJ Statute: treaties, custom, general principles, and, as subsidiary means, judicial decisions and doctrine. The core disputes in PIL revolve around the tension between sovereignty and collective obligations. Debates persist on the scope of the prohibition of the use of force and its exceptions (self-defense, Security Council authorization, and contested doctrines such as humanitarian intervention or the Responsibility to Protect); the limits of state jurisdiction and immunities; state responsibility for internationally wrongful acts; the legal effects of unilateral acts and sanctions; territorial and maritime delimitation; and the relationship between international and domestic law. Compliance and enforcement remain structurally weak, dependent on consent-based dispute settlement and political organs like the UN Security Council. Today PIL faces serious strain. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, contested maritime claims in the South China Sea, recurrent recourse to unilateral sanctions, deadlock in the Security Council, climate change litigation before the ICJ and ITLOS, and questions about Palestine, Kosovo, and Western Sahara have all tested foundational rules. Calls for reform of multilateral institutions, advisory proceedings on climate obligations, and an active docket before the ICJ underscore both the resilience and the fragility of the contemporary international legal order.

Key players

International Criminal Law

International Criminal Law (ICL) holds individuals criminally accountable for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. Its modern origins lie in the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals after World War II, which established that international law imposes duties and liabilities directly on individuals. The 1948 Genocide Convention, the 1949 Geneva Conventions' grave breaches regime, and the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY, 1993) and Rwanda (ICTR, 1994) progressively developed substantive crimes, modes of liability, and procedural standards. The Rome Statute of 1998 created the International Criminal Court (ICC), a permanent, treaty-based court with complementary jurisdiction that defers to national authorities able and willing to prosecute. Hybrid and internationalized tribunals — for Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Lebanon, Kosovo, and the Central African Republic — have complemented this system. Core disputes concern the scope of universal jurisdiction, head-of-state immunities, the activation and definition of the crime of aggression, the relationship between peace and justice, selective enforcement (notably the Court's focus on African situations in its early years), and cooperation with arrest warrants. Today ICL is highly visible but contested. ICC arrest warrants involving leaders of Russia, Israel, and Hamas figures, ongoing investigations in Ukraine, Palestine, Sudan/Darfur, the Philippines, and Venezuela, and US and Russian sanctions targeting ICC officials illustrate both the Court's reach and the political backlash it generates. Universal jurisdiction prosecutions in European national courts for Syrian and other crimes have expanded the practical enforcement of ICL, while debates continue over reform of the Court, victim participation, and the integration of cumulative charging for sexual and gender-based crimes.

Key players

International Human Rights Law

International Human Rights Law (IHRL) is the body of norms that guarantees fundamental rights to all individuals on the basis of their humanity, binding states regardless of nationality. Its modern foundation is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), followed by the two 1966 Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and core thematic treaties on racial discrimination, women, torture, children, migrant workers, enforced disappearance, and disability. Regional systems — the European, Inter-American, and African human rights frameworks — provide judicial and quasi-judicial enforcement and have generated rich jurisprudence on state obligations. Core disputes include the indivisibility and justiciability of economic, social, and cultural rights; the extraterritorial application of human rights treaties; derogations and limitations in states of emergency and counterterrorism; the relationship between human rights and IHL during armed conflict; and tensions between universality and claims of cultural relativism. Mechanisms such as the UN Human Rights Council, the Universal Periodic Review, treaty bodies, and special procedures monitor compliance, but enforcement remains uneven and politically contested. Today IHRL confronts severe pressures: democratic backsliding and shrinking civic space, mass surveillance and the human rights impacts of artificial intelligence, climate change as a rights issue, business and human rights, the rights of LGBTQ+ persons, women's rights and reproductive autonomy, and grave abuses in conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, Iran, Afghanistan, and Venezuela. The Inter-American system in particular has been central to Latin American human rights protection, addressing enforced disappearances, transitional justice, indigenous rights, and protest-related violations.

Key players

International Refugee Law

International Refugee Law (IRL) is the legal regime protecting persons who flee persecution and seek safety across international borders. Its cornerstone is the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, which define the refugee, codify the principle of non-refoulement, and set out rights to identity documents, work, education, and access to courts. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), established in 1950, supervises the Convention and coordinates international protection. Regional instruments — the 1969 OAU Convention in Africa and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration in Latin America — broaden the refugee definition to include those fleeing generalized violence, internal conflict, and massive human rights violations. Core disputes include the scope of the refugee definition (particularly for victims of gang violence, gender-based persecution, climate-related displacement, and sexual orientation and gender identity claims); the extraterritorial reach of non-refoulement; the legality of pushbacks, externalization arrangements, and offshore processing; responsibility-sharing among states; and the legal status of internally displaced persons and stateless populations, who fall outside the 1951 Convention's strict scope but are addressed in the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions. Today displacement is at record levels — over 120 million forcibly displaced people globally — driven by conflicts in Syria, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and the Sahel, and by the Venezuelan exodus, which has tested the Cartagena framework across the Americas. The 2018 Global Compact on Refugees seeks to operationalize responsibility-sharing, while climate-induced displacement, mixed migration flows, and increasingly restrictive asylum policies in Europe, North America, and elsewhere raise pressing questions about the future coherence and effectiveness of the international protection regime.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for V Concurso Regional de Alegatos y Simulación en Derecho Internacional Humanitario.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Israel's Death Penalty Bill: Ben-Gvir's Win

EEUU activa ley contra deepfakes sexuales

IRS COVID Penalty Refunds

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

XE
XXIV Edición de la Competencia Internacional “Víctor Carlos García Moreno” – Procedimiento ante la Corte Penal Internacional
Oct 12–16, 2026Ciudad de México, Mexico

Argentina College December 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

V Concurso Regional de Alegatos y Simulación en Derecho Internacional Humanitario

Dec 3–5, 2026Buenos Aires, ArgentinaIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
International Humanitarian Law · Public International Law · International Criminal Law · International Human Rights Law · International Refugee Law

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 3 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Argentina

As the host nation, ARG demonstrates a commitment to fostering expertise in international humanitarian law within the region.

Role in topic

Switzerland

CHE is the depositary state of the Geneva Conventions and a historical proponent of international humanitarian law.

Role in topic

United States

USA has a complex relationship with international humanitarian law, often balancing humanitarian concerns with national security interests.

Role in topic

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

International Humanitarian Law

Key players

Public International Law

Key players

International Criminal Law

Key players

International Human Rights Law

Key players

International Refugee Law

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for V Concurso Regional de Alegatos y Simulación en Derecho Internacional Humanitario.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Israel's Death Penalty Bill: Ben-Gvir's Win

EEUU activa ley contra deepfakes sexuales

IRS COVID Penalty Refunds

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

XE
XXIV Edición de la Competencia Internacional “Víctor Carlos García Moreno” – Procedimiento ante la Corte Penal Internacional
Oct 12–16, 2026Ciudad de México, Mexico

Argentina College December 2026

By committee

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

XXIV Edición de la Competencia Internacional “Víctor Carlos García Moreno” – Procedimiento ante la Corte Penal Internacional

Frequently asked questions

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

XXIV Edición de la Competencia Internacional “Víctor Carlos García Moreno” – Procedimiento ante la Corte Penal Internacional

Frequently asked questions