The Vice-Chancellor, of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Professor (Mrs.) Rita Akosua Dickson, has launched the 32nd Christof Heyns African Moot Court Competition at KNUST. The Competition is themed: The Africa We Want: Combating Discrimination, Climate Change and Corruption. The Hypothetical case will tackle issues relating to corruption, minority sexual and gender rights, and practices harmful to the environment.
The launch was to generate wider public awareness of the competition, create significant visibility, and help fundraising efforts in the arrangements for hosting the competition in September 2023.
Launching the event on behalf of the University Management, she congratulated the KNUST Law Faculty for emerging winners and getting the bid to host the 32nd edition. Professor Akosua Dickson stated that since the inception of the Law Faculty in 2003, it has nurtured the faculty into an enviable and excellent legal site for professional legal training. Making a significant impact on Africa’s legal environment and participating in and winning several competitions and other feats for the past fifteen years. Professor Dickson emphasised that the Competition which would be held from the 3rd to 9th September 2023, would bring the whole of Africa to the centre of the world, Ghana, precisely Kumasi, and Management and all stakeholders would leave no stone unturned to make it a memorable one. She, therefore, encouraged the KNUST Team and Faculty, the University’s benefactors, staff, and students to come together to ensure a successful hosting and winning of the Competition.
In his remarks, the Acting Dean of the KNUST Faculty of Law, Dr. Chris Adomako-Kwakye, said the Christoff Heyns African Human Rights Moot Court Competition remains an important gathering of students, scholars, and judges about human rights in Africa. This annual event brings together all the faculties of law in Africa, and their best students attempt to unravel issues that bother human rights as if they are before the African Human Rights Court on human and people’s rights. Dr. Adomako-Kwakye revealed that sixty-six (66) law faculties from eighteen (18) African countries have registered and would participate in this year’s competition. The Acting Dean also said the KNUST Faculty of Law participated in the 31st edition of the competition in Cairo, Egypt at the British University in July 2022, and emerged winners out of 45 participating institutions representing 19 African countries. The KNUST Faculty of Law emerging as the overall winner is the reigning continental champion of legal education and courtroom advocacy. In his concluding remarks, he called for support for the local organising committee to ensure a successful competition.
In his address, the Special Guest of Honour, President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Mr. Yaw Acheampong Boafo, Esq., commended the late Professor Andam and the founding fathers for their vision in establishing the Faculty. The KNUST Faculty of Law, he noted, has produced notable legal professionals for Ghana, serving in various capacities for the development of the country. Mr. Boafo stated that it is gratifying that KNUST is celebrating women. The all-female team and other appointments and opportunities given to women are making a statement to the world that women are capable and are making the world proud. He commended the idea of organising moot court competitions that it helps to inculcate the proceedings in the law courts in students. He advocated that mooting be an experience every law student should go through to enable them to acquire skills, especially in arguing cases that are not available at the academic level. The GBA President pledged the GBA’s support for the competition and urged KNUST to host and win.
The KNUST Team that competed in the 31st edition of the Competition swept the following awards in 2022: The Best Written Memorial for the Applicant, The Best Written Memorial for the Respondent, First and Second Best Oralist Advocacy Skills, and the Best English-Speaking Team with the highest score at the end of the preliminary qualifying rounds. The KNUST Team also topped the quarter and semifinals and was the only Faculty of Law in the history of the competition to win all categories of the competition in one year.
The Reigning Team that participated last year comprised Miss Anita Enyonam Dei, Miss Afia Owusuwaa Banahene, and Miss Majida Abbah Issah. The all-female team shared their mooting experience from their preparations to their participation in Cairo, Egypt. They thanked the Management of the University and the Faculty for the opportunity to represent the University.
