Emina Kukuljac is guided by the idea that the secret of success is not in doing what one loves but loving what one does. Emina is a fourth-year student at the Faculty of Law at the University of Sarajevo and the Hastor Foundation’s scholarship holder. Emina found her place in our family in February 2021, primarily thanks to her 9.7 GPA, but also thanks to her endeavors which have proven how successful she really is. One of those successful endeavors, which has echoed through our country and region, is that the Faculty of Law at the University of Sarajevo won the first place at the 15th regional trial simulation competition before the European Court of Human Rights. Among the team members of the Faculty of Law was our dear Emina who used her knowledge and skills to contribute to this achievement.
When it comes to the activities at the competition, seven countries took part in it (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, and Albania), and a total number of eleven Faculties of Law participated (the institutions of which are based in Sarajevo, Mostar, Niš, Novi Sad, Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Ljubljana, Tirana, Podgorica, and Skopje). The competition involved a written submission, as well as an oral presentation, and it lasted between the 28th of May and the 24th of October 2021. The teams received a fictious case which they had to resolve simultaneously as applicants and state respondents. Emina points out that the written submission part was especially effortful, provided that a lot of research had to be done; everything needed to comply with formatting instructions; and, at the same time, this was the first time that she encountered this type of competition. With that, the period when she and her team worked on the written submission matched with the exams schedule at their faculty. Such circumstances required investing a lot of time and effort; so, Emina is very proud of the fact that she succeeded at passing her exams all at once, even though she was simultaneously preparing for the competition.
The first two oral presentations were very successful for the team members of the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo, given that they convincingly won against the team from Tirana (27:18) in the role as state respondents. They qualified for the semi-finals thanks to the overall result. After that, the team from Sarajevo beat the team from Ljubljana, who won the competition last year, as well as the team from Zagreb, who has won the first place a few times. After the final counting of points, the Sarajevo team qualified for the finals where they competed against the team from Niš and subsequently won the round and the first place. Emina suggests that she and her teammates did not have great hopes for the victory, provided the team from Niš has also won the first place a few times.
Despite low expectations, the team of the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo decided to give their best shot until the very end, no matter the result. Such an attitude probably contributed to the end result. The team of the Faculty of Law at the University of Sarajevo was proclaimed victorious at this year’s competition by the committee composed of seven judges. This is a great achievement for the Faculty of Law because the faculty won this competition for the first time in its history. It’s also an achievement for Bosnia and Herzegovina, since no other faculty of law in the country has succeeded at achieving such a result. The Hastor Foundation also shares this success, because the Foundation recognized Emina’s potential, effort and hard work, and decided to motivate her for future successes. Emina is preparing with her team for a great trans-European finale which will take place in Strasbourg on the 10th of December 2021 (symbolically marking Human Rights Day), where they will compete against the team from Copenhagen, provided the same type of competition takes place in the Scandinavian countries, where the team from Copenhagen won. As for the Hastor Foundation’s influence on Emina’s development, she said the following thing:
Ever since the first day of my being a member of the Hastor Foundation’s family, my wish to grow and work on myself has become bigger. I have met so many successful young people through volunteering activities, which has given me further motivation to continue working and taking part in many projects, because there really is someone who acknowledges and appreciates all of that. Through its everyday support, the Hastor Foundation motivates us to make progress, invest time, effort, and hard work into our education, so that we are able to make our dreams come true in the future.
We wish our dear Emina to be victorious at the great trans-European finale in Strasbourg and to continue achieving successes and making the Hastor Foundation extremely proud of the fact that she is a member of our family.
Prepared by: Amina Abanspahić
Translated by: Said Kamenica
