A combined team of law students of Makerere University, the Université des Lagunes (Côte d’Ivoire) and the University of Pretoria (South Africa) won the round of the 27th African Human Rights Moot Court Competition, which took place on August 11, 2018 at the Law Court complex in Accra, Ghana.
The runner up team consisted of Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique), University of Ghana (Ghana) and University of Nairobi (Kenya).
The final round was presided over by the Chief Justice of Ghana, Justice Sophia Akuffo, who is also a previous President of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
A total of 48 teams participated in this annual event, which in 2018 was organised by the Centre for Human Rights and hosted by the School of Law, University of Ghana. This was the second time that the African Moot Competition was held in Ghana.
Meanwhile Makerere University came second behind the University of Ghana in the ranking of the top 15 English-speaking teams. University of Pretoria, University of Nairobi, University of Zimbabwe, Great Zimbabwe University, Uganda Christian University, Mukono, Midlands State University, University of the Gambia and Moi University in that order also came in the first ten of the English-speaking teams.
The University of Johannesburg, University of Cape Coast, University of Lagos, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and University of the Western Cape in that order made the last five positions.
Université des Lagunes (Côte d’Ivoire), Université Félix Houphouet Boigny de Cocody (Côte d’Ivoire), Université Gaston Berger de Saint Louis (Senegal), Université Virtuelle du Sénégal (Senegal) and Universite Alassane Ouattara de Bouaké (Côte d’Ivoire) in that order were the top French- speaking teams.
The University Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique)-, Universidade Jean Piaget Angola (Figueiredo) and Agostinho Neto (Angola) were the best Portuguese-speaking universities in that order.
Makerere University’s Hussein Dawood and Muhabwe Ruth Ahaba came behind University of Ghana’s Allotey Aniela Elma Adorkor as second and third respectively as the best English Oralists.
“Our students have been crowned champions of the All Africa Moot competition in Ghana. I congratulate Mak Law School and our students upon this great achievement. You have made Makerere proud,” said Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe
UCU’s Katushabe Donah Loyce was the 15th in that category.
In the Memorial rankings category Makerere University came fifth behind University of Cape Coast, Nkwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Ghana, Ghana Institure of Management and Public Administration and Makerere University.
The African Human Rights Moot Court Competition is the largest gathering of students, academics and judges around the theme of human rights in Africa. The 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, 150 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 2017, the 26th edition of the Moot Court Competition was hosted at the University of Mauritius. The event brought together 54 teams from 20 African countries.
The 2018 Moot Competition had participants tackle issues relating to the human rights of women and the right to self-determination.