Preparation for the 2021 African Human Rights Moot Court Competition were formally launched on 7 September 2020 in Stellenbosch, South Africa, when the Director of the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, Prof Frans Viljoen, the Vice Rector (Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies) of Stellenbosch University, Prof Eugene Cloete, together with the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Stellenbosch University, Prof Nicola Smit, signed the Memorandum of Understanding.
The 30th edition of the African Moot Competition will take place from 11 to 16 July 2021, in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Given the disruptions caused to the academic calendar due to COVID-19, the organisers agreed to adjust the previously announced dates.
Hosting the 2021 African Human Rights Moot Court Competition in Stellenbosch will mark an important milestone for each of the partners. The Centre for Human Rights will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the African Moot Competition. The host, the Faculty of Law, Stellenbosch University, will in 2021 be commemorating its Centenary.
The local organising committee is headed by Prof Annika Rudman, who is a professor in the Department of Public Law. Her scholarly interests are focused on the African human rights system, and she has participated in numerous African Moot Court Competitions.
Welcoming message
It gives me great pleasure to invite you all to Stellenbosch in 2021 to join us in celebrating the 30th anniversary of the African Human Rights Moot Court Competition and the Centenary of the Faculty of Law, University of Stellenbosch. We are delighted to partner with the Centre for Human Rights in commemorating our achievements. We thank Prof Frans Viljoen for his visit to our Faculty under these difficult circumstances, and for the partnership that has been extended to us through the co-hosting of this event. We share the same commitment towards the protection of human rights and the same passion for the continent. Therefore, we are excited to welcome participants from the breadth and length of the African continent to the Southern tip of Africa, and we do so in the spirit of the African proverb: “travels teaches us how to see”.
We are still hopeful that we will have the opportunity to attend the semi-final event in Dakar, Senegal to celebrate the achievements of the Virtual University of Senegal and the University Cheikh Anta Diop, organising the 29th edition of the competition under very difficult circumstances and to familiarise ourselves with the different aspects of the organisation of the competition.
“We are all different – we are all equal”
The AU Agenda 2063 aspires to a continent where gender equality and the rights of vulnerable groups are respected and celebrated in every community and culture across Africa. Thus, as full gender equality in all spheres of life is a central goal to the AU it is destined to be at the centre of all continental efforts such as the African Human Rights Moot Court Competition. Taking its point of departure in the official moot slogan “From human wrongs to human rights” the motto for the 2021 African Human Rights Moot Court Competition is therefore that, “We are all different – we are all equal”. Equality, difference and identity will be the leading themes in 2021; spurring students participating in the competition to explore human diversity through a human rights lens, recognising all that brings us together in our differences.
Welcome to Stellenbosch
South Africa, as a nation, has in the past hosted the African Human Rights Moot Court Competition on a number of occasions. However, it is the first time that the competition is hosted by the Faculty of Law, University of Stellenbosch. Much hard work has already gone into this endeavour, and we have a lot of work ahead of us. In conclusion, today marks the beginning of many new partnerships, between the Faculty of Law, University of Stellenbosch and the Centre for Human Rights, but also between the Faculty of Law and every Faculty that joins us in celebrating the 30th edition of the African Human Rights Moot Court Competition during our 100th year of existence. Our commitment is to extend a warm Cape Winelands welcome to all participants, even though we will be hosting you in the midst of our winter, to make sure this event leads to many long-lasting partnerships.
Annika Rudman
On behalf of the Organising Committee of the 2021 African Human Rights Moot Court Competition, Faculty of Law, University of Stellenbosch.
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