The final rounds of the 29th African Human Rights Moot Court Competition will be held in Dakar, Senegal, and hosted by the Université Virtuelle de Sénégal (UVS) and Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD) from 16 to 19 December 2020.
English Preliminary Rounds Timetable
The English preliminary rounds for the 29th edition for the African Human Rights Moot Court Competition will be held online from 21 September to 21 October 2020. The #AfricanMoot2020 is presented by the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, in partnership with the Université Virtuelle de Sénégal (UVS) and the Université Cheick Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD). The preliminary rounds for the French-speaking teams have been organised separately and will be held, also online, from 12 to 16 October 2020.
The year 2020 has been a particularly challenging year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the African Moot organisers to seek new ways to organise this continental event. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all participating oniversities who, despite numerous logistical challenges, managed to provide support for their teams.
The organisers have undertaken all possible measures to provide the best online experience for teams who will be competing in the preliminary rounds in the 29th African Moot.
Twenty-nine English-speaking teams from across the continent will take part in the online preliminary rounds. The preliminary rounds will be judged by human rights experts drawn from various backgrounds such as academia, non-governmental organisations and legal practitioners. They will assess the students' ability to argue complex legal human rights questions. The top six English-speaking teams will be selected and will join the top two French-speaking teams to attend the semi-final rounds in Dakar, Senegal, if COVID-19 health and travel regulations allow. If prevailing circumstances do not allow for in-person semi-final and final rounds in Dakar, these rounds will also have to take place virtually.
Welcoming Message: Prof Frans Viljoen, Director, Centre for Human Rights
Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organisers of the African Human Rights Moot Court Competition have decided to adjust the format and dates of the 2020 African Moot Competition.
The preliminary rounds of the Competition will take place virtually (via videoconference) from 21 September to 21 October 2020 and the semi-final and final rounds will take place in Dakar, Senegal, from 16 to 19 December 2020. If prevailing circumstances do not allow for in-person semi-final and final rounds in Dakar, these rounds will also have to take place virtually.
Preparation for the 2020 African Human Rights Moot Court Competition was launched formally when the Director of the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, and the Rectors of the Virtual University of Senegal and the University Cheikh Anta Diop, on 18 October 2019 signed the Memorandum of Agreement in Dakar, Senegal.
The competition was officially launched on 6 December 2019, when the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria, Prof Tawana Kupe, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the three partner universities.
The Competition will be held in English, French and Portuguese.
Site Français Sitio Portuguese
About the African Human Rights Moot Court Competition
The African Human Rights Moot Court Competition is the largest gathering of students, academics and judges around the theme of human rights in Africa. This annual event brings together all law faculties in Africa, whose top students argue a hypothetical human rights case as if they were before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Competition continuously prepares new generations of lawyers to argue cases of alleged human rights violations before the African Court.
Since its creation in 1992, 170 universities from 50 African countries have taken part in this permanent fixture on the Africa legal education calendar. The Moot has been a catalyst for the establishment of the leading programmes in the field of human rights teaching and research in Africa. In 2019, the 28th edition of the Moot Court Competition was hosted at the University of Botswana. The event brought together 47 teams from 20 African countries.
In 2020, the Moot Competition will be co-hosted by Université Virtuelle de Sénégal and Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar. The Hypothetical case will tackle issues relating to Artificial Intelligence, Data Protection and Cyber Security, social media regulation, freedom of speech and corruption.
“AFRICA: FROM HUMAN WRONGS TO HUMAN RIGHTS”
