World Day for International Justice: “This day reminds me why I chose to study Law"
Patrícia Bravo is a law student at Universidade Católica Portuguesa. She is currently in her 4th year and is already thinking about practising law. For Patrícia, this day has a special meaning because "it celebrates the very reason why I chose to study law. Justice."
On July 17, 1998, the Rome Statute was signed. The treaty allowed the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, where war crimes and crimes against humanity are tried.
This day recalls the importance of the courts in respecting human rights and maintaining the equality of international and civil rights across the world, a subject that Patrícia has always been passionate about.
Her choice of the Law degree was "last minute and was only taken in the last year of secondary school". Until then, "I wanted to study medicine", but then she realised that "what I really liked was to be a lawyer. Being at the bar of the court and getting justice done in each case".
For this student, in International Law, "there is still a long way to go to actually enforce justice and penalise all human rights violations".
As an example of these violations, the student mentions the "crimes we now see being committed in Ukraine", recalling that "neither Russia nor Ukraine have signed the Rome Statute and this makes it difficult for the ICC to intervene."
A situation that Patrícia says can be overcome with a "Convention that increases the powers of the ICC or with the creation of ad hoc tribunals."
"These are changes that are needed", but the student does not believe they will happen in her generation, not least because "the obstacles have to do with each state's right to sovereignty and that is very difficult to overcome".
Despite the great challenges ahead of her, Patrícia Bravo is confident that she will fulfil all her dreams. In September, with her internship in a law firm, she begins another stage in the Faculty of Law - Lisbon School. A choice that the student says was made due to the practical component of the course.
"All the training, since the 1st year, was allied to professional life. Theory and practice have always gone hand in hand," she adds, recalling another factor that had weight when choosing the college: "the 99% employability rate."