World Human Rights Day, 10 December 2009

Posted on December 03, 2009



As part of the celebrations the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Judge Navi Pillay, will serve as the President of the First World Human Rights Moot Court on 9 December, an event in which 10 teams from the five United Nations regions around the world will argue a case about discrimination as if they are doing so before an international court.

The teams in the final round will be:

• Africa - Université de Yaoundé II, International Relations Institute of Cameroon and the American University in Cairo, Egypt.
• Western Europe and others - The University of Lucerne Law Faculty in Switzerland and Freie University, Berlin, Germany.
• Eastern Europe - Debrechen University, Hungary, and the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University of Ukraine
• Asia - Gujarat National Law University and the National Law School of India University.
• Latin America and the Caribbean - Universidad Juarez Del Estado De Durango of Mexico and Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Sao Paulo of Brazil.

The judges for the World Human Rights Moot Court Competition will also include, former Chief Justice Pius Langa, former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson, from South Africa, Jobi Makinwa, Civil Society Coordinator of the UN Global Compact in New York and George Mugwanya, Senior Counsel of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

High Commissioner Navi Pillay will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Pretoria on 10 December during the graduation ceremony where 30 students from the entire continent who have completed the prestigious Master’s programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa, presented by the Centre for Human Rights and eight other African universities, will receive their degrees. This is the 10th year in which the programme has been presented. High Commissioner Pillay will deliver the keynote address.

Navi Pillay became UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in July 2008. She has outstanding credentials in human rights and justice and was appointed an acting judge in the High Court of South Africa in 1995. She also served as a judge on the International Criminal Court from 2003 and became Judge President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 1995.

High Commissioner Navi Pillay will meet the press on 9 December at 15:30 in the Moot Court Room 1-51, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria.

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