From November 6-10, the Foreign Ministry hosted the 21st annual Víctor Carlos García Moreno (VCGM) international criminal law competition, with the ministry’s Legal Advisor’s Office collaborating with the International Administration of the VCGM Competition. The competition consists of a simulated International Criminal Court (ICC) case, in which six teams from national and foreign universities participated over the course of eight preliminary and one final round.
The purpose of the VCGM Competition is to promote the role of the ICC and the various legal issues in which it is engaged. In the competition, the teams represent the prosecution, the legal representative of victims, and defense counsel in a hypothetical case. For 20 years, the VCGM Competition has been carried out with the participation of national and international universities and institutions. It allows the participants to develop specialized knowledge and acquire valuable tools for the practice of their profession.
During the oral rounds, an academic seminar was held on "Hate speech, gender and digital media: Challenges and perspectives in international criminal law" with Marcela Méndez Martínez, Regional Communication Coordinator of the International Committee of the Red Cross; Geraldine Gachuz Martínez, Director of International Women's Affairs at the Foreign Ministry; Hannah Birkenkötter, Professor of International Law at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM); and Fabiana Núñez del Prado Nieto, lawyer and independent researcher in The Hague.
The event addressed the challenges of international criminal justice in international humanitarian law, hate speech, gender diversity and the ongoing investigations before the International Criminal Court.
This year, the team from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) won first place, with the University of Guadalajara as runner-up. The University of the Americas Puebla won third place.
The Foreign Ministry welcomes the opportunity to hold this type of rigorous academic event that, year after year, fosters the growth of students who in the future will be involved in defending international justice.
