The Faculty of Law of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, has been adjudged the second best Law Faculty in the 19th All African Human Rights Moot Court competition held in Cotonou, Benin in October, 2010. Miss Grace Sackey, a third year student and Miss Rebecca Amponsah, a fourth year student constituted the team for KNUST Faculty of Law. The team was jointly coached by Mr. Ernest Owusu- Dapaa and Mr. Oswald K. Seneadza, both International Law lecturers at the faculty.

The KNUST team lost the overall best to the joint team made up of Rhodes University, South Africa, Université de Cocody, Côte d'Ivoire and University of Namibia. It was the third appearance of KNUST Law Faculty since the competition began 19 years ago.

This year's competition was co-organized by the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria and the Université d'Abomey-Calavi with support from several international organizations and governments. In all, 56 Universities coming from 26 African countries attended this unique event on the Human Rights calendar in Africa. There were 38 Anglophone teams, 15 Francophone teams and 3 Lusophone teams. Students and lecturers also attended a one-day training workshop on Human Rights in Africa.

The African Human Rights Moot Court Competition is unique in giving the young and the bright future African lawyers the opportunity to critically examine the human rights situation on the continent, with a view to improving it through the use of the persuasive tactics of logical legal arguments based on the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.

The competition consists of preliminary rounds in English, French and Portuguese. The four best English and the two best French teams were recomposed into two teams (applicant and respondent) for the final, where they argue before prominent lawyers and international human rights experts.

This year, the hypothetical case dealt with the issue of polygamy, human rights violations in initiation schools and the criminalization of HIV/AIDS. The inclusion of the issue of HIV/AIDS led UNAIDS to offer its support to the Centre for Human Rights. This support, which is the beginning of a long term co-operation, is articulated around the specific issue of youth and HIV/AIDS.

The following personalities sat as judges during the final of the 19th Moot Court Competition: Advocate Robert Dossou, President of the Constitutional Court of Benin; Advocate Reine Alapini Gansou, Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights; Dr David Padilla, Former Assistant Executive Secretary, Inter-American Human Rights Commission; Dr Hélène Lambatim Nadjilengar, Vice -President of the Economic and Social Council of Chad and President of the Chadian Women Lawyers Association; Mrs Nana-Oye Lithur, Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Ghana; Justice Johann van der Westhuizen, Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa; and Dr Farida Mamad, Faculdade de Direito Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Moçambique.

The final results, top rankings and photographs of the competition are available on the official Moot Court website: www.chr.up.ac.za/moot. The 20th African Human Rights Moot Court Competition will be held at the University of Pretoria, South Africa in 2011.