1st Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition
University of Pretoria, South Africa 9 December 2009
Hypothetical case
Official results
The official languages of the 2009 Moot were English and French.
The two teams from each of the different UN regions were be paired against one another. There would then be five final rounds (one per UN region), and the winner of each UN region will be idetified (there is consequently no overall winning team).
Winning Teams in the Oral Rounds:
The top 5 universities from the oral rounds are:
Africa: EgyptAmerican University in Cairo, .
Western Europe and others: The University of Lucerne Law Faculty, Switzerland.
Eastern Europe: Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, Ukraine.
Asia: National Law School of India.
Latin America and the Caribbean: Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Sao Paulo of Brazil.
Judges
- Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Judge Navanethem Pillay, completed her law degree at Natal University, and has a Masters and Doctorate from Harvard University. She is currently the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 1967 she was the first woman to start a law practice in KwaZulu-Natal,and has also served interalia as theVice-President of the University of Durban-Westville, a judge of the High Court of South Africa, and thePresident of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She is a co-founder of Equality Now,anda member of the Women’s National Coalition.
- Former Chief Justice Pius Langa, former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson, from South Africa, Advocate Jobi Makinwa, Civil Society Coordinator of the UN Global Compact in New York.
- George Mugwanya, Senior Counsel of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
- Mr David Johnson is a human rights expert and retired senior official of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. He has worked at the Geneva headquarters as well as in various postings in the field. He established and ran the first regional office of the OHCHR in South Africa, served as Deputy of the OHCHR Office in Nepal,Co-coordinator of the International Commission of Inquiry for Togo, and OHCHR Regional Representative for Southern Africa. He has also worked at the Geneva Headquarters of Defence for Children International.
- Justice Pius Nkonzo Langahas served in various capacities in the Department of Justice from interpreter to magistrate. He was admitted as an advocate to the Natal Bar, and has attained the rank of Senior Counsel. He was appointed as one of the first judges of the Constitutional Court of South Africa,and was later appointed as Chief Justice in 2005. He has served as the Chairperson of the Judicial Service Commission, the Chairperson of the Southern African Judges Commission, and is a permanent member of the Court of Arbitration.
- Ms Nicole Lewis completed her LLB at the University of Pretoria,and hasan LLM from Leiden University. She has clerked at the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and worked at the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia where she worked as an Associate Legal Officer and an Appeals Counsel with the Appeals Unit of the Office of the Prosecutor. She is currently doing her pupillage at the Johannesburg Bar. Advocate Olajobi Makinwa is the head of the Transparency and Anti-Corruption Initiatives at the United Nations Global Compact, New York. She has previously served as the Executive Director of Amnesty International, South Africa. She has worked at various UN agencies, including as Legal Officer for the UNEP, Nairobi and UNEP Regional Office for Europe, Geneva.She was a consultant to inter alia the UNDP, ILO and UNHCHR, and is a member of the international editorial team of the African Human Rights Law Reports. Olajobi is a solicitor and barrister of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
- Dr George William Mugwanyaisan advocate of Uganda’s Courts of Judicature. He is currently a Senior Appeals Counsel at the Office of the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He was formerly a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Makerere University in Uganda, and has Masters degrees from the University of Pretoria, the University of Birmingham and a Doctorate from Notre Dame Law School.
- Justice Arthur Chaskalson was appointed as the first President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and later as Chief Justice of South Africa. He assisted in drafting the South African and Namibian Constitutions, and has served inter alia as the national Director of the Legal Resources Centre, President of the International Commission of Jurists, Chairperson of the Southern African Judges Commission, and Chairperson of the Eminent Jurists Panel which was established to enquire into the impact of counter- terrorist methods on the rule of law, human rights law and international humanitarian law. He has received numerous awards for his work in promoting human rights including the national award of Supreme Counsellor of the Baobab, and has received nine honorary Doctorates.
- Professor Michelo Hansungule isa professor of human rights law at the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria. He is a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists and a member of the Expert Advisory Group of UNIFERM. He has taught at various universities around the world, and has conducted a number of community outreach human rights dissemination and expert training programmes. He has further been consulted by various African governments and intergovernmental organisations including the African Union and the United Nations.
Organizers
- Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria,
- in consultation with the OHCHR.
Participating Universities
Total of ten teams from 5 UN Regions were selected.
Africa
1. Cameroon: Université de Yaoundé II, International Relations Institute of Cameroon
2. Egypt: American University in Cairo
Asia-Pacific
3. India: Gujarat National Law University
4. India: National Law School of India University.
Eastern Europe
5. Hungary: Debrecen University
6. Ukraine: Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University of Ukraine
Latin America & Caribbean
7. Mexico: Universidad Juarez Del Estado De Durango
8. Brazil: The winner of this round was Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Sao Paulo of Brazil.
Western Europe & Others
9. Germany: Freie University
10. Switzerland: University of Lucerne