The 4th World Human Rights Moot Court Competition was held from 7 to 10 December at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The objective of the World Human Rights Moot Court Competition is to promote co-operation and collaboration between law faculties from around the world. It also has the ambition to facilitate exchanges between universities from various backgrounds and legal systems.
The final of the World Moot Competition, for four years now, has become part of the official celebration of the International Human Rights Day on 10 December. The final round was attended by World Moot participants as well as representative of diplomatic missions accredited to South Africa.
After two days of arguing in the preliminary rounds, the following two teams advanced to the final round: Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica and the University of Auckland in New Zealand. The final round took place in the Senate Hall of the University of Pretoria and was judged by eminent human rights law experts. The panel of judges in the final round included:
- Dr Aderlardus Kilangi, President of the African Union Commission of International Law (Presiding judge)
- Ms Jane Connors, Chief, Special Procedures Branch, OHCHR, Geneva
- Professor Christof Heyns, Special Rapporteur on Summary Executions and Extra-judicial killings
- Ms Monica Mbaru, Judge of the High Court of Kenya
- Dr Michal Barzak, Lecturer at Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland
The team from Norman Manley Law School was arguing for the applicant while the University of Auckland was arguing for the respondent. After an hour of intense debates between the competitors, the judges retired for deliberation and returned to the Senate Hall to make instructive and encouraging comments to the participants.
The final round of the World Moot Competition was followed by the annual graduation ceremony of the Centre for Human Rights’ LLM students as well as the closing dinner where the results of the World Moot Competition were announced.
The closing dinner was the highlight of the events and activities that was organised by the Centre for Human Rights from 3 – 10 December. During the closing dinner, Prof Frans Viljoen presented the first ever African Union Prize for the promotion and the protection of human rights in Africa to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Pretoria, Prof Cheryl de la Rey. Th NGO Prize was awarded to the Centre on the occasion of the African Commission celebrating its 25th birthday, during the opening of its 52nd Ordinary Session in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire, on 9 October 2012.
In recognition of their continuous support, distinguished guests from embassies, donor countries, human rights organisations as well as former directors and staff of the Centre for Human Rights were invited.
Professor André Boraine (Dean of the Faculty of Law) welcomed the guests to the dinner. Justice Johann van der Westhuizen, (first Director of the Centre for Human Rights and a Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa) took the audience through the history of the Centre which was established during the apartheid era in South Africa. Professor Christof Heyns (UN Special Rapporteur and the Centre’s second director) shared a few anecdotes on the development of the Centre and its human rights education programmes. Professor Frans Viljoen (current Director of the Centre) concluded the trio of insightful reflections on the past 26 years of the Centre’s existence. Professor de la Rey congratulated the Centre for Human Rights and thanked all donors of the University of Pretoria for their constant and continuous support.
Ms Jane Connors, from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva announced the results of the fourth World Human Rights Moot Court Competition. The winning team of this edition (for the third time in a row) was the Norman Manley Law School from Jamaica. The best memorials prize was awarded to the University of Lucerne, Switzerland and the prize for the best oralist was awarded to Mr Kemoy Orane McEkron of the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica.
The World Human Rights Moot Court Competition was supported by the following donors: OHCHR, Flemish Delegation, Embassy of Belgium.