THE HAGUE--The all-female St. Maarten team won third place at the International Moot Court Competition in The Hague on Friday. The South Africa team dominated in the finals at the Peace Palace, while the New York team won second place.
Third place is still impressive considering that St. Maarten participated for the first time in the International Moot Court Competition with a team of seven female students, the majority from St. Dominic High School.
“It was a great achievement. As coaches, we were very impressed by the capabilities of our ladies, and the other teams were as well. Naturally, we are very proud of the ladies,” said coach Willem Nelissen, an attorney-at-law at Lexwell, in an invited comment on Friday.
The 16 teams of the 12 countries were informed on Thursday evening which teams would be going to the finals. The South Africa and New York teams would face each other the next day at the Peace Palace, home of the International Criminal Court (ICC), in front of real ICC judges.
“The finals were great, but we were sure that we could have beaten the two final teams,” said Nelissen.
The difference in points between the first and third place was very small, he stated. The teams were judged on five elements including debating, speaking, legal content and the answers to questions of the judges.
The St. Maarten team had done very well all week during the preliminary rounds, making an impression on the judges and other teams. “Our ladies received compliments from everyone. The two winning teams even told us afterwards that they had expected St. Maarten to win the competition. It is too bad that we didn’t make the finals, but we are very happy with third place,” said Nelissen.
During the award ceremony, the team was called forward followed by a big applause. St. Maarten Minister Plenipotentiary Henrietta Doran-York and Director of the Cabinet of the Minister Plenipotentiary Perry Geerlings were present for the ceremony, as was Deputy Mayor of The Hague Ingrid van Engelshoven.
The St. Maarten team consisted of students: Tatia Brunings, Manaar Mohammed, Hilda Soares and Hailey Greaux of St. Dominic High, Ariel Vlaun of Caribbean International Academy (CIA), Candace Ford of the St. Maarten Academy, and Harsha Parchani of Learning Unlimited (LU). The four coaches were: Bastiaan Pilon, Willem Nelissen, Fehmi Kutluer and Erica Cannon.
The next International Moot Court Competition will take place in 2018. Nelissen and his team expressed the hope that a St. Maarten team will again represent the island at that time. “We want to use this competition and our achievements to stimulate St. Maarten youngsters to pursue a study,” said Nelissen.
Relatively few St. Maarten youngsters, especially boys, decide to further their studies, and not enough students take up a law study. This is unfortunate because St. Maarten needs specialists, graduates who have completed a study at academic level. “The St. Maarten community is becoming more international and we need these specialists,” said Nelissen.
“The International Moot Court Competition provides an excellent opportunity to develop yourself, to learn from others and to get in contact with students from all over the world. We would like to stimulate secondary school students to look ahead and to continue their studies,” he said.
