adminSifelani Tsiko Agric, Environment & Innovations Editor
Herbert Chitepo School of Law’s Moot Team has won the All Africa International Humanitarian Law Moot Court Competition which was held recently in Arusha, Tanzania.
Victor Nkiwane, Dean of the Faculty of Law at Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) told The Herald that his team won the prestigious Pan-African moot competition after beating Nigeria in the finals.
“Given that it’s the first time for us to win such a competition and the fact that we are only five years as a law school, I think it’s a massive achievement for us as a university,” he said.
“We are setting the standards and we are proud of our achievements both as GZU and as a country. We also did well at the biggest international law moot competition, Jessup in Washington DC where we came 19th out 700 competing law schools represented in April this year.”
GZU was the only African team to make it to the top 32 international moot competition teams.
A total of eight teams participated in this event which is held annually in Arusha, the seat of the African Court.
The GZU team was made up of Ashley Muza, Kundiso Rusike and Makomborero Muropa, with Nkiwane as the coach.
The team walked away with several trophies.
The All Africa International Humanitarian Law Moot Court was created in an effort to promote the work of the African Court.
Each team was represented by three students assisted by a team coach.
Each team presented oral submissions for no more than six and half minutes, followed by time for rebuttals and questions from the jury.
The moot court competition is open to undergraduate and post-graduate students from all institutions of tertiary education in Africa.
Each university is entitled to present one team composed of two students, preferably one woman and one man.
Each team is accompanied by a team coach.
At the International Humanitarian Law Moot Court competition, students argue to prosecute or defend a fictional war criminal charge before the International Criminal Court.
The competition is designed to cover issues of international humanitarian law, international criminal law and public international law.
Zimbabwe has won five of the last 12 editions of the regional competition in Arusha.
Past participants in the competition have risen to influential positions of top advocates in the country’s judicial system.
Online Reporter