The Christof Heyns African Human Rights Moot Court Competition, the largest gathering of students, academics and judges around the theme of human rights in Africa, has had its 32nd edition at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.
The paramount chief of Mampong Traditional Area, Daasebere Osei Bonsu II, has urged organisers of the event to consider the inclusion of traditional authorities to seek their views on the critical human rights issues that are discussed.
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.
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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, 170 universities from 47 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 2022, the 31st edition of the Moot Court Competition was hosted at The British University in Egypt, Cairo. The event brought together 45 teams from 19 African Countries.
Speaking at the event, the Omanhene said the chieftaincy institution is key in adjudicating matters of human rights and seeking their views in juxtaposition with the law is paramount in shaping society.
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“Therefore, in the next conference, I suggest to you the organizers that in the future as much as the theme admits to it, selected traditional rulers should be invited to participate and be heard on their views on such topical and sensitive human rights issues,” he suggested.
Meanwhile, President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Yaw Boafo highlighted on the significance of such events in shaping the students with skills outside the classroom.
He said “the opportunity to participate in any moot court competition is to be taken seriously by every law student as it helps students to inculcate all the habit and follow all the policies and procedures that are followed in legal proceedings in real court situations. It affords students the opportunities to acquire skills that are not ordinarily available at the academic stage of legal training.”
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