ICRC Writing Competition VI: Upholding Humanity

Upholding Humanity

This legal writing competition invites academics, emerging scholars, and practitioners to critically examine how, and to what extent, strengthened political commitment can contribute to preserving humanity in today's increasingly devastating battlefields and humanitarian consequences. Participants are encouraged to explore the Global Initiative on Galvanizing Political Commitment to International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and how such governmental political will at global, regional and national levels can translate into action and possibly reforms that would effectively preserve human dignity and uphold humanity during armed conflicts. 
Given the extent of which the Arab region is impacted by armed conflicts and their devastating humanitarian consequences, this competition offers the opportunity for Arabic-speaking scholars and researchers to provide their own interpretation, representing the Arab perspective, and to help address the challenges of IHL in contemporary armed conflicts. 
 

This writing competition thus invites Arabic-speaking scholars to contribute to this global initiative with legal and policy perspectives and recommendations related to one of the following seven workstreams: 
1.    Preventing violations of IHL;
2.    The mandate, composition, roles and duties of national IHL committees;
3.    Leveraging IHL’s contribution to peace;
4.    The protection of civilian infrastructure during hostilities;
5.    The protection of hospitals in armed conflict;
6.    Upholding the protection that IHL affords to civilian populations and other protected persons and objects against the danger arising from the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) during armed conflicts; and
7.    Upholding the protection of persons and objects from the danger arising from modern naval warfare, with a view to avoiding its human cost. 
 

The article should be written in Arabic. 

. From Arabic-speaking States.
. No co-authoring allowed.
. ICRC staff will not be eligible for the award.
 

I. Preparation of Manuscripts
. Originality: This is a research article that requires an original research idea. It should include your personal analysis based on different academic research and data available
. Plagiarism: Avoid plagiarism, i.e. using other people’s ideas and information without crediting the source. Therefore, make sure you reference all ideas and information that are not originally yours - (Ref. below for guidelines on referencing)
. Abstract: All manuscripts should be accompanied by a short abstract (less than 100 words) summarizing the main content/argument of the article.
. Keywords: A few keywords should be identified for easy web search and referencing.
. CV: All manuscripts should be accompanied by a C.V. or short biography (one or two sentences per author) describing the current function/affiliation of the author.
. Font: Manuscripts should be submitted in Word format in 12 pt Times New Roman font with 1.5 line spacing (footnotes in 8 pt). 
. Length: Manuscripts submitted should be approximately 10,000 words, footnotes included. 
. Highlighting: No highlighting (bold, italics, underlined) should be used within the text body, except for italics for foreign language terms: e.g. a limine. Foreign organisations should not be set in italics.

Headings and sub-headings: Please do not use more than 3 different levels of headings and sub-headings: (this is not inclusive of the research paper title).
o    Title Level 1
o    Title Level 2 
o    Title Level 3

II. References and sources:
. Referencing style: Pick one referencing style and maintain it throughout the paper (footnotes, not in-text referencing).
. Internet References: For references available on the internet please indicate “available at:” followed by the full website link and the date of the last visit to the reference.
Example: …, available at: www.icrc.org/eng/resources/international-review/index.jsp  (accessed in July 2025). 
. Sources: There are many ICRC publications and articles available and can be used, in addition to other Arabic publications and articles. You are also encouraged to use non-Arabic sources.

III. The editorial basics
. Punctuation: Rules of punctuation common in most of the Arabic countries must be respected.  
. Dates: Use the following style: 1 February 1989.
. Numerals: We use Arabic numbers not Hindi. Numerals below 100 should be spelt out, except for ages, which should always be given in digits.
 

The ICRC has the honor to offer three awards: 
The first-place winner will receive a Certificate and 1000 USD. 
The second-place winner will receive Certificate and 750 USD
The third-place winner will receive Certificate and 500 USD
*In case there are joint winners in any of the above awards, the awarded monetary amount might be subjected to adjustment. 
 

You are requested to send your article to Noura Shawky nshawky@icrc.org  before18:00 (Cairo Time), 1 November 2025.

The announcement will be within three months, on average. Please note that due to the high volume of submission, the ICRC will only contact the winners individually and will make a public announcement on the ICRC Website and the ICRC’s Arabic Facebook page. Therefore, keep an eye out for these pages for updates.