The 32nd Christof Heyns African Human Rights Moot Court Competition is taking place at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana from 3 to 9 September 2023.
The Competition is the largest gathering of students, academics and judges around the theme of human rights in Africa. This 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 African Court was established in 2006 and recently made the headlines when former President Zuma announced that he intended to appeal to the African Court against the decision of the Constitutional Court to sentence him to imprisonment for contempt of court. A judgement by the African Court would have been binding on South Africa. Unfortunately for Mr Zuma, South Africa is one of the member states of the African Union which has not yet accepted the jurisdiction of the African Court over disputes between individuals and the state. In stead, South Africa continues to see the African Court as an inter-governmental dispute resolution mechanism only.
By contrast, the Competition seeks to raise awareness of the potential role that the African Court can play in the protection of human rights in Africa and to develop the litigation skills of future human rights lawyers. The problem for 2023 deals with a range of human rights issues, including corruption and illegal mining, Covid19 lock downs and compulsory vaccinations, free secondary schooling, and the registration of NGOs working in the field of LGBTQI+ rights. Each team must prepare written memorials or heads of argument for both the applicant (the victims of the alleged human rights abuses) and the respondent state (the perpetrator of the alleged human rights abuses). Every team must thereafter argue the case in court, first as the lawyers for the applicant, then as the lawyers for the respondent. The best teams proceed to the semi-final round and the finals. UWC has participated with great success in the Moot Court Competition since its inception in 1992 and hosted the competition in 2013.
The election and training of the team is part of the activities of the very successful UWC Moot Court Society. In addition to participating in the Christof Heyns African Human Rights Moot Court competition, the Moot Society also organises and participates in several local moot court competitions during the year.
