The 20th African Human Rights Moot Court Competition is an annual mock trial competition between African law faculties was held at the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria from 7 to 12 July 2011, organised by the Centre for Human Rights, based at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The competition brought together law students, academics and judges from 50 university teams from 22 African countries.
During the last 19 years the Moot Court has been held in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Swaziland, South Africa, Uganda, Mozambique, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Egypt, Cameroon, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Senegal, Nigeria and Benin. The objectives of the Moot Court are to educate future African lawyers on the African system of human rights protection. In this regard, we argue a hypothetical human rights case under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights before benches of law lecturers and human rights experts.This is the second time for the University to participate.
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| Gambian Team |
I and Peter Kalmant Mendy, students at the Faculty of Law, University of The Gambia (UTG) were chosen after two preliminary rounds to represent the University at the 20th African Human Rights Moot Court Competition. Bernadette Smith was the Faculty Representative and coach of the Gambian team.
The first day of the Moot Court Competition witnessed the officially opening ceremony at the University of South Africa (UNISA) where participants were welcomed by Prof. Frans Viljoen, Director of Centre for Human Rights. Other speakers included the Assistant Director of the Centre, the Vice Chancellor and Principal of UNISA and Pretoria and a special message from the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Other activities for the day included a visit to Freedom Park and a Gala dinner at the Gallery of Leaders.
The second day marked the first two preliminary rounds where students argued for the applicant and respondent respectively. In total, 37 English teams, 9 French teams and 5 Portuguese teams participated in the 6 preliminary sessions. Students participated in teams of two, and argued once for the applicant and once for the respondent. Faculty representatives took on the role of judges, scoring each team's performance and arguments.
This year, participants argued whether a hypothetical African government has contravened the African Charter or other international law by relocating an indigenous group from the land which they traditionally occupied, and granting a coltan exploitation license over that land to a mining company that is government co-owned.
The third day was the preliminary rounds 3 and 4 following the same format as the day before. After the rounds, the scoring sheets were submitted to faculty representatives after the results were verified by an independent auditor. This was followed by the announcement of finalists and draw to determine the composition of teams in the final. The day ended with music and dance.
The fourth day was excursion day where participants had the opportunity to visit three different sites of their choice which included Soweto, and National Zoological Gardens.
In the fifth day, the conference dubbed “30 Years of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights: Looking forward while looking back”. Parallel sessions focused on the African Charter at thirty, its gains and challenges, African humanism, the woman question, sexual and reproductive rights amongst others. This was followed by a plenary.
The sixth day which was also the final of the Moot Court was judged by the President of the African Commission, the Vice President and other Commissioners. This was followed by the closing ceremony and then a gala dinner.
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| Senegalese sister from Gaston |
The Moot Court was truly successful and a great avenue for networking for the Faculty and the University of The Gambia in general. It equally offered a very singular opportunity for exchange between African law faculties as evident by the planned student and lecturer exchange programmes we set up as a direct result of the Moot Court.
At the end of the day it was not about winning, it would definitely have been great if we won.. but we didn’t.
21st African Human Rights Moot Court Competition in Mozambique next year, watch out for the University of The Gambia.
