28/05/2009 Uncategorized
The debating team of UPH’s International Relations Department managed to get to the semifinal of International Humanitarian Law Debating Competition in national scope.
Lippo Village, (26/5) – The debating team of UPH’s International Relations Department managed to?get to?the semifinal of International Humanitarian Law Debating Competition in national scope. Fourteen universities from all over Indonesia participated in this competition which was held by UGM and International Commitee?of Red Cross.
Olivia Husri Basrin, Yohan Budianto, and Gina Karina were the International Relations Department students who represented UPH in the debating competition. All three of them were in the third year of their studies at UPH. UPH debating team?ranked the third position in the competition, after Universitas Gadjah Mada and Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta.
The other universities which also sent their teams are Universitas Pembangunan Nasional (UPN) Yogyakarta, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY), Universitas Indonesia (UI), Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII), Universitas Al-Azhar, Universitas Padjajaran, Universitas Jayabaya, Universitas Brawijaya, Universitas Wahid Hasyim, Universitas Hasanudin, Universitas Riau, and Universitas Mulawarman.
The competition focused on debating humanitarian law issues such as municipal weapons, Israel-Palestine conflict, Hamas-Fatah conflict, and many others. One of the participants from UPH, Gina Karina, said that she had prepared for the competition well enough that she did not meet too many obstacles in the debate.
?We quite easily understood the topics and managed to do well in the debates because some topics had been discussed in our classes, so two weeks preparation is quite enough to do well,? she said.
Head of UPH?s International Relations Department, Edwin M. Tambunan, positively welcomes ICRC to also cooperate with UPH in organizing such events. ?We greatly welcome ICRC to make UPH as a host to such competitions. This competition is excellent for drilling the students? skills and ability to debate, to expand our network, and to set a benchmark on how good our performance is,? he said.
International Relations Department has been participating in many events as well, apart from this debating competition. On April 29th, the department held a seminar entitled ?Is There Any Change?? that discussed Obama?s first 100 days of presidency, inviting US Ambassador for Indonesia, Cameron R. Hume. Tambunan stated, the department will keep on organizing such seminars periodically every semester.
?We also suggest that the department work together with International Relations Student Council (HMJ, ed.) to organize debating forum for the students so that they are ready in participating in such debate competitions,? said Tambunan.
