The Universiti Teknologi Mara (Uitm) Malaysia, along with its Asian Law Students Association UiTM, its collaborators from the countries of Indonesia, Singapore, and The Philippines, organized and conducted the 2nd ever ASEAN Youth Students Dialogue Competition, which took place on the 11th and 18th of June, 2022.
The competition's theme for the year is "The Right to a Healthy Environment," and the delegates discussed three topics: Climate Litigations in ASEAN; Compliance and Enforcement of Environmental Law in ASEAN; and Regional Policies to Enhance Sustainable Development wherein delegates where assigned to the room depending on their choice of topic and the availability of slots of each rooms.
Three distinguished speakers were invited to speak at the plenary: Mr. Matthew Baird of ASEAN Environmental Law, Ms. Hema Mahadevan of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, and Professor Sam Blay of the Sydney City School of Law. Dr. Melanie Reyes, the Chairperson of the Department of International Studies also gave a welcome message as one of the collaborators of the event.
Fifteen (15) IS students participated in the competition, namely Jeremiah Gabrielle Aliggayu, Ma. Angelica Bouquren, Irish Shaine Francisco, Erica De Leoz, Danielle Noche, Zoe Verzo, Ysabelle Milyn Mendoza, Nerhema Oliva, Tyzcia Andrai Plateros, Leslie Ann Villanueva, Zhra Alwan, Kriz Agillon, Samatha Diyco, Jearmialini Rico, and Gemmalyn Quintana. They were divided into three groups to represent the countries of Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The students' active participation and insightful resolutions earned them the Best Delegate Award (Gemmalyn Quintana), Best Team Award (Zhra Alwan, Kriz Agillon, and Sam Diyco) and Honorable Mention (Sam Diyco).
“Winning the award was really the icing on the cake. I joined the competition after my friend Zhra invited me as a last hurrah for our IS journey. We struggle with the topic assigned to us at the start because of the amount of research we had to complete, leaving us unable to practice our presentation. To our surprise we were able to accomplish the presentation without any difficulties. We didn’t really expect to win anything but when the winners were announced all three of us jumped in joy. It was really an unexpected but nonetheless a welcome surprise. Truly a last hurrah for the three of us in our IS journey.” Sam said.
According to Gemmalyn “bagging the best delegate award for Climate Litigation in ASEAN was both an honor and a privilege. Having left an impression in an international conference such as ASOC fuels my drive as a young global leader to create durable and sustainable solutions to global environmental issues such as climate change." -- Written by Nerhema Oliva