MIDLANDS State University (MSU) Law School is set to travel the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland where they will battle it out with some of the sharpest legal minds on the global arena at the Moot Court Competition World Finals.
The Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition is the only global moot court competition explicitly dedicated to human rights.
It is co-organised by the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, the Academy on Human Rights, Washington College of Law, American University, and the United Nations Human Rights Council Branch (HRCB), at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Preliminary rounds for the competitions were held virtually from the 20th to 27th of May 2023.
The MSU Law School team, consisting of two gifted young legal minds Rutendo Chikwava and MacDonald Chirima alongside assistant Lecturer Faculty of Law coach Ntandoyenkosi Moyo, recently excelled during regional rounds.
“The team will now embark on a journey to the World Finals at the United Nations Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, from the 17th to the 21st of July 2023, where they will compete against the finest legal minds from around the globe,” said MSU in a recent update.
Each year a new case is carefully developed, drawing on current global human rights issues – these range from human rights and artificial intelligence, over terrorism and mercenaries, to the right to not be discriminated against on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Qualifying students apply by submitting heads of argument for the hypothetical case, which are assessed by a panel of experts.
Thereafter the best 10 teams from each UN region are then invited to participate in the pre-final, quarter-final, semi-final and final rounds of the Competition in Geneva, Switzerland.
Once in Geneva, teams have to argue the two sides of the hypothetical case, representing, alternatively, both the Applicant and the Respondent before a ‘bench’ of human rights experts.
The two best teams advance to the final round, which is presided over by judges from international courts and tribunals.
Established in the year 2000, MSU is widely regarded as a game changer locally and in the region due to its robust curriculum which has seen it overtaking a number of traditional institutions of higher learning.
To date the institution has produced thousands of excelling professionals across disciplines earning it a sound reputation and improvement in rankings.
Source MyZimbabwe
