UNIMALNEWS | Surabaya – The Head of Public Relations and External Relations Unit of Universitas Malikussaleh (Unimal), Teuku Kemal Fasya, was invited to attend an international certified course themed "International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and Islamic Law Related to Armed Conflict" in Surabaya on 2-5 September 2019. The event was held by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in collaboration with UIN Sunan Ampel, Surabaya.

According to a host committee member, who is also the Dean of the Sharia Faculty of UIN Sunan Ampel, Dr. Masruhan, this event initially invited only 30 participants. As the demand was deemed higher, 43 people were welcomed in total, consisting of lecturers from the Faculty of Islamic and Sharia Law, writers, and democracy and humanitarian activists. This course also involved participants from Malaysia and the Philippines.

According to a committee member from the ICRC, Novrianto Kahar, this activity was the fifth to be carried out by the ICRC after previously being held in Jakarta, Makassar, Banda Aceh, and Banjarmasin. The enthusiasm of the participants who either registered or invited showed that this theme is still relevant to continue to be developed in the future, including curriculum changes in tertiary institutions.

In his remarks, the ICRC delegation for Indonesia and Timor Leste, Alexandre Faite, stated that this course was deliberately targeting educated people who have a background in Islamic law, because international humanitarian law has so far been viewed as a paradigm separate from Sharia or Fiqh. Even though the problems faced in the majority of Muslim countries are the same, the right formulation must be sought for the humanitarian crisis and conflict in the view of Islam and global ethics.

According to Teuku Kemal Fasya, the presence of Unimal in this course can potentially open up two opportunities: to further deepen the understanding on the international humanitarian law in the context of ongoing transitional justice in Aceh and to seek opportunities for collaboration with the ICRC in expanding legal literacy on human rights and democracy in Aceh. It seems that the opportunities are possible, Kemal told Unimalnews.

Speakers attending the course included Charles Dorman-O Gowan, Christian Donny Putranto, and Dr. Ahmad Al-Dawoody, a thinker from Egypt who is also the adviser for Islamic law and jurisprudence at the ICRC. His book titled “The Islamic Law of War” has recently been translated into Indonesian and published by Kepustakaan Popular Gramedia.[kur]