The Competition
A week to put the law into action
Founded in 1989, the Jean-Pictet Competition is a week-long training in international humanitarian law (IHL) for students from all over the world. It is organized every year by the Committee for the Jean-Pictet Competition (CCJP), a not-for-profit association under French law.
The concept.
The Competition takes the law out of the books: everything is oral — no written memorials, no frozen pleadings. The tests are simulations and role-plays built around a fictitious armed conflict, in which teams play the actors of those situations — for example legal advisers, ICRC delegates, military officers, diplomats, NGO representatives.
Teams are assessed on their command of the law, their ability to use it in a strategic context, their teamwork, and how truthfully they play the role they are given.
The week.
Around fifty teams of three students, selected on written application from the five continents, gather for one week in the edition’s host city. Tests follow the rhythm of the scenario; semi-finals and then the final designate the winning team of the Jean-Pictet Prize.
The prizes.
Three prizes are awarded at each edition: the Jean-Pictet Prize to the winning team, the Gilbert-Apollis Prize to an outstanding individual performance, and the Michel-Deyra Prize, awarded by the participants and the volunteers to the team that best embodies the spirit of the Competition.
Jean Pictet (1914–2002).
A Swiss jurist and vice-president of the ICRC, Jean Pictet was one of the principal architects of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their commentaries. In 1989 he agreed to give his name to the Competition — a patronage he honored until his death.
The Committee for the Jean-Pictet Competition (CCJP).
The Committee for the Jean-Pictet Competition brings together members drawn from past editions — academics, IHL practitioners, delegates of humanitarian organizations. It writes the scenario, selects the teams, gathers some forty volunteers (judges, tutors, petits bras, kitchen) and keeps the Competition alive year after year.