Current Affairs Competition (Category 3: Exploring Humanitarian Law)

Overview
Theme: Inter Arma Caritas
Task:
The world today is peaceful, albeit a fragile one. Many nations work together to protect the peace and prosperity that we enjoy today. But when war comes, what happens? What are the problems faced during a war, and how does the various local and international organisations, together with the Red Cross (ICRC and NS) work together to solve the problems?

Teams are to come up with a drama based on the above task.

Team Dynamics:
4-10 members (inclusive of Teacher-Officers if they choose to participate, however no bonus marks will be given. 1 team
per unit only)


Duration: Not more than 7 minutes


Target Audience: General Public

Some pointers are as follows:
 You must include an example of a past war. Were the rules of EHL followed? If yes/no, why?
 What are some of the reforms/measures taken by the Red Cross, as the nature of war changes (biological warfare, use
of hostages)?
 How important is the learning of EHL in today’s context?
 What can you do to raise awareness of EHL and IHL, and/or the role of the Red Cross in times of war?
Things to take note:
 You may use background sound during your drama. However, the use of the projector should be limited to showing static background images
 Your drama should tackle the following questions:
(i) What happens during a war, and
(ii) How does Red Cross (together with other organisations) deal with the problems arising?
(iii) Ideas discussed should show reference to International Humanitarian Laws, such as the ones below (explore at least two of them in your drama), to allow the audience to know that such laws exist:


Rule 1: Intentionally attacking civilians or civilian objects
Rule 2: Using human shields to protect military objectives
Rule 3: Torturing military personnel for any objective
Rule 4:  Recruiting children into armed forces
Rule 5: Abusing the Red Cross/Red Crescent/Red Crystal Emblems
Rule 6: Using Prohibited weapons such as landmines and cluster bombs
Rule 7: Attacking personnel/objects which has any of the 3 RC emblems


Judging Criteria
S/N Criteria Description Percentage
1) Stage Presence Quality of cast, ability of actors to portray their characters: 20%
2) Quality of Script Use of original and creative ideas in its overall projection, with script closely related to theme: 30%
3) Content IHL is clearly expressed, and audience can understand the importance of the law: 20%
4) Intonation Ability to project voice and words clearly enunciated: 10%
5) Coordination Smoothness of scene changes and character changes: 10%
6) Public Voting Ability to convince the audience of the importance of IHL and EHL: 10%
There will be voting in the Final Round of this category. Teams must work hard to win the votes of their audience.

Awards
Teams will be ranked based on their individual scores. The breakdown of the relation between the placing and awards are
as follows:
S/N Placing Award
1 4th, 5th Merit
2 3rd Bronze
3 2nd Silver
4 1st Gold

Timeline
By 26 June 2012,:Submit Nominal Roll via Online Registration
By 2 July 2012P: Submit Video via Online Submission
By 6 July 2012: Release of preliminary results
Early July 2012: Drama Workshop
21st July 2012: Top 5 Teams move on to Finals held in the afternoon

Schools will go through a preliminary round by submitting a video. The format of the video submission must be in .mp4, .avi or .mov. The drama must be done in front of the whole unit (who will be the audience), and this must be shown in the video. Marks will be awarded based on the same rubrics for the Final round (with the exception of the public voting portion).
The video should be taken in a single continuous shot, and no post-processing is allowed. 10% of the overall marks will be
deducted if the judges are not able to understand the content due to the low quality of the video.
Finalist schools will have to go through a workshop that will improve the overall quality of their drama.


If interested, please let any of the RCY teachers know by 3 June 2012 (Sun). Please get your parents' approval first. We will be training on every Mon, Wed and Fri during Term 3 and on Wed and Fri of the last week of June holidays.