The United Nations celebrations of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 will this year include the staging of the first World Human Rights Moot Court Competition, organised with the support of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. All law faculties in the world are invited to participate. The theme of the problem to be argued will be ‘Discrimination’.

Participation in the Moot will be open to students from all institutions of higher learning in the world. The languages used for this event will be English and French.

The presiding judges in the final rounds in Pretoria will be High Commissioner Navi Pillay and judges from international tribunals and bodies such as the different regional human rights courts and UN human rights treaty bodies. Representatives from emerging human rights bodies such as ASEAN will also be invited.

The Competition is open to students who are undertaking a first degree in law. Participation in the competition is not restricted to law students, but it is expected that in most cases the teams participating in this event will be comprised of students who study law.