The AUC at the All-African Moot Court

This year was the 17th Annual African Moot Court organized by the Center of Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. It coincided with and formed part of the centenary celebrations of the university. Seventy-eight universities participated from 32 different countries in Africa. Rounds were conducted in English, French and Portuguese. Each team participated in four rounds; twice as the applicant and twice as the respondent state. The AUC team competed against teams from such countries as Mauritius and Kenya and won all four of their rounds. The AUC participants for this year were Sarah Stefanos, a final year IHRL student of the Law Department, Sherif Elgebeily, a second semester student of the IHRL Law Department, and Cole Agar, an undergraduate Political Sciences student. The Moot coach was Director of the Law Department's Legal English Training Unit (LETU), Diana Van Bogaert, who acted as judge for the English rounds.


Programme:
· 30th June: Registration, opening ceremony and cultural night, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
· 1st and 2nd July: Moot Court competition preliminary rounds, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
· 3rd July: Excursion to Soweto, Gold Reef City and the Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa.
· 4th July: International Conference: Human Rights in Africa
· 5th July: Final rounds and the closing ceremony














Conference:
The Conference on Human Rights in Africa was held at the Sanlam Conference Centre at the University of Pretoria. The following topics were on the agenda of the annual Human Rights in Africa conference:
- Introduction to ILDC (International Law in Domestic Courts)
Ms Edda Kristjansdottir, University of Amsterdam
- Is there a human right not to be poor under international law?
Prof Michelo Hansungule, Centre for Human Rights
- Examination of the hypothetical case
Prof Laurent Sermet, Université de la Réunion
- Memorial writing
Ms Preesha Seetal, University of KwaZulu Natal
- Oratory skills training
Dr Tom Ojienda, Moi University, Kenya
- Teaching of human rights as part of the law faculty’s teaching programme
Prof Frans Viljoen, Centre for Human Rights
- The integration of human rights into the general school /educational curriculum
Justice Sanji Monageng, Chairperson, and Dr Mary Maboreke Secretary, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
- Association Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF)
Mr Ciprian Mihali
- University of Pretoria Student Law Review
Ms Avani Singh
- International Criminal Justice in Africa Programme (ICAP)
Mr Godfrey Musila - Institute for Security Studies, Pretoria
- African Network of Constitutionalists
Dr Danwood Chirwa


Excursion:
Accompanied by tour guides, the visit to Soweto included a quick stop at the Hector Pieterson Memorial. En route to Gold Reef City, where lunch was served, participants could get a glimpse of Nelson Mandela’s old house in Vilakazi Street and the famous Regina Mundi church. (Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s old house is also located in Vilakazi Street and it is the only street in the world where two Nobel prize-winners resided.) After lunch, the Apartheid Museum was next on the itinerary. The museum opened in 2001 and is acknowledged as the pre-eminent museum in the world dealing with 20th century South Africa, at the heart of which is the apartheid story. It illustrates the rise and fall of apartheid and include provocative film footage, photographs, text panels and artefacts illustrating the events and human stories that are part of the epic saga, known as Apartheid.

Participation in exercises like the moot court is essential for the continued development of future legal scholars and practitioners and, for the promotion of human rights in general. The Moot Court was an extremely valuable experience, not only through the actual events, but also as it opened up many windows for future possibilities.
Firstly, since one of the student participants is vice-president of the Law Students’ Association (LSA) of the American University in Cairo, they were inspired by the idea of a regional system uniting all law students that share the same interest. LSA started contacting other organizations (and potential organizations) that are similar to LSA in an attempt to create a network of student-led organizations bringing together the two regions of Africa and the Middle East. The network aims to build the capacity and maximize the potential of future leaders and advocates of Africa and the Middle East to promote human rights. The collaboration is designed to identify the common problems in the two areas and prompt future generations to open dialogue and develop solutions.
Secondly, the students were able to make contact with organisations such as the South African Human Rights Commission and Justice Moseneke, deputy-chief Justice of the South African Constitutional Court. Whilst there, students discussed the possibilities of academic cooperation, internship opportunities and mutual exchange of future publications.
Finally, the benefits and inspirations realized by the African Human Rights Moot Court encouraged the students to complement the experience and apply to other moot courts. The department is planning to send a team to The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition that is taking place in Washington DC in April 2009. The department successfully sent a team to the 2008 Jessup competition and hopes to continue in the same path of increasing its visibility, academic resources and excellent quality of student calibre in future years.