The African Human Rights Moot Court Competition, now for 21 years a very prominent feature on the calendar for African law faculties, recently celebrated its coming of age.
The 21st African Human Rights Moot Court Competition was held from 1 to 6 October in Maputo, Mozambique.
The Universidade Eduardo Mondlane co-hosted this important human rights competition with the Centre for Human Rights from the University of Pretoria
This year, the following teams advanced in the final round of the Moot Competition:
Applicant
- University of Namibia
- Université des Lagues CIDD (Cote d’Ivoire)
- Universidade Aghostino Neto (Angola)
Respondent
- Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique)
- North West University Potchesfroom (South Africa)
- Université Gaston Berger de Saint Louis (Senegal)
Arguing the case for the respondent, the combined team from the North-West University Potchefstroom Campus (South Africa), Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique) and Université Gaston Berger (Senegal) emerged as the winning team in the final round. Acting on behalf of the applicant, the combined team from the University of Namibia, Universidade Aghostino Neto (Angola) and Université des Lagunes CIDD (Côte d'Ivoire) were the runners-up. As this was the first time that the Université des Lagunes CIDD participated in the Moot Court Competition, it was quite an achievement to reach the finals as newcomers.
The final round was held at the Centro Internacional de Conferências Joaquim Chissano in Maputo. Madam Justcie Bess Nkabinde (judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa) presided over the bench consisting of Dr Ozias Pondja (President of the Supreme Court of Mozambique), Dr Fatsah Ouguergouz (Vice-President of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights), Justice Abdulqawi Yusuf (judge of the International Court of Justice), Prof George Abi-Saab (former judge of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR) and President of the African FoundationforInternational Law) and Dr David Padilla (former Assistant Executive-Secretary, Inter-American Human Rights Commission).
The African Human Rights Moot Court Competition aims to bring together law students from all over Africa to argue a hypothetical human rights case as if they are doing so in the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Judges in the preliminary rounds are lecturers from the participating universities. The best teams advance to the final round where they merge to form two new combined teams with English, French and Portuguese-speaking students on each side. The judges in the final round are international human rights lawyers of the highest standing and simultaneous translation is provided. This year, a total of 62 universities from across the African continent participated in the event. Forty-five English teams, nine Portuguese teams and eight French teams competed in the preliminary rounds, which were held at the Faculdade de Direito, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane.
The idea of the African Human Rights Moot Court Competition is to create awareness among African law students – and the broader public – about the existence of and possibilities presented by the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. This Court, located in Arusha, Tanzania, was established in 2006 but up to date, only a few cases have been brought against states. The Moot Court can be seen as an educational tool to equip a new generation of lawyers with the skills and experience to submit cases before the Court and to hold governments accountable for human rights violations.
Each year, a hypothetical problem relevant to human rights in Africa is drafted and students have to prepare and present their arguments to the Court. This year, the case dealt with the right to development; the question whether a state may refuse aid from previous colonial masters while facing the starvation of its people; the wide-ranging provisions of sedition laws and the balance between autonomy and the government’s obligation to preserve the right to life in the context of a political detainee’s attempt to die by way of a hunger strike.
The 21st competition was presented in collaboration with the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, who hosted the Moot Court in 1998. In 2012, for the first time ever, the competition revisited one of its previous host countries by being presented in Mozambique. Next year, the University of the Western Cape will host the 22nd African Human Rights Moot Court Competition in Cape Town, South Africa.
On 9 October 2012, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the oldest human rights body of the African Union, awarded its first ever NGO Prize for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights to the Centre for Human Rights. The prize recognises the Centre’s contribution to realising human rights in Africa.