UGM Retains IHL Title, Grabs Fifth Trophy in 2013

Universitas Gadjah Mada (Alif Satria, Indriani Pratiwi, Paska Darmawan) defended the title in the Indonesian round of the 2013 International Humanitarian Law Debate after defeating a team from Universitas Brawijaya in Bali yesterday. This victory gave UGM its fifth trophy this year, making it the most successful club in 2013 so far. It was the third championship for freshman Alif Satria, who also became a tournament best speaker for the second time in as many months.

Alif Satria, Paska Darmawan, Indriani Pratiwi

The national IHL debate is exclusively for International Relations students. Invitations go to the department or the student association, rather than the debating society. Due to this arrangement, debaters from powerhouse Universitas Indonesia, where inter-organisation communications can be muddled, failed to join the competition again although many strong speakers from this school are IR students. Some participants in the IHL debate were not active competitive debaters but IR students assigned by their respective department or association.

The champions get a ticket to debate in the international round in Malaysia, where actually non-IR students are allowed to compete. The results of the IHL debate will not affect the Debater of the Year table because of the tournament's IR-only restrictions.