The 9^th Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition hosted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights was successfully held at Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland from 18 to 21 July 2017. The competition was presided over by senior judges and scholars in the field of human rights law, including retired Justice Albie Sachs of South Africa Constitutional Court and a comrade of Nelson Mandela, Ms. Kate Gilmore, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Professor Manfred Nowak, a senior expert in human rights law. Fudan University team achieved great success after going through fierce competitions against delegates from different countries and was remarkably ranked No. 9 on the global level, No. 2 in Asia, and the best in China.
 

(Official Logo of the Competition by the Steering Committee)

It is the first time that Fudan University has participated in the Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court. With the great support of Fudan Law School and Fudan University Center for Human Rights Studies (National Human Rights Education and Training Base), the team was composed of coach Dr. Tu Yunxin from Fudan Law School, 2014 undergraduate Ms. Zhao Daiwei, 2016 postgraduate Ms. Zhai Yuji, 2016 postgraduate Mr. Gu Zhengzheng.

 

（Fudan University team in Palais des Nations, Geneva）

The 9^th Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court consists of both five preliminary rounds in regional tournaments and the global tournament. During the preliminary rounds, the participants included teams from Oxford University (UK), Yale University (USA), University of Tokyo (Japan), University of Delhi (India), University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), University of New South Wales (Australia) and other renowned overseas universities, delegates from China’s Fudan University, Peking University, China Remin University, China University of Political Sciences, Tianjing University, University of International Business and Economics, Dalian Maritime University were also presented in this competition. The global tournament consists of both the pre-final and final round in Geneva. The pre-final round is composed of four sessions, the order of which is determined by means of anonymous draws of lots. Each team has to argue twice for both sides of the case, namely the applicant and the respondent during the competition. The best two teams in the pre-final round will proceed to the final round and compete for the world championship. During the pre-final stage, Fudan University team had the opportunities to argue against teams from Germany, India, Japan and another Chinese university. Fudan was the only Chinese team that was awarded as one of the top 10 teams in the pre-final stage with an advantageous position of 83.44 points and was merely outscored 6 points by the world champion.

(The scene of round-robin tournament)

The World Human Rights Moot Court of this year was based on a highly complicated hypothetical case involving various cutting-edge issues such as the right to life, right to personal liberty, right to equality, right of women, right of minorities, right of disabled persons and the protection of refugee rights. With 7-month relentless training, Fudan team members systematical studied and reviewed a large number of cases from the UN Human Rights Committee, European Court of Human Rights, African Court of Human and People’s Rights, Inter-American Court of human Rights, South African Constitutional Court, United States Supreme Court, United Kingdom Supreme Court. Under the tutorship of the coach, Fudan team members have done intensive readings of the works of leading legal publicists and other relevant resources, and therefore enriched their legal knowledge and mastered distinguished skills of court debating.
 

(The scene of the pre-final and final round)

Nelson Mandela Human Rights Moot Court Competition is known to be the most renowned international moot court in the field of human rights law, which is crowned as the“Olympic Games for Human Rights”. The Competition is held each summer at Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. It is a high-level international tournament which is open to university students across the globe. The official language of the Competition is English. Students have to participate as team members of each university and submit memorials based on the hypothetical case, which are then assessed by a panel of human rights law experts. The competition is composed of two parts--the regional stage and the global pre-final stage. The regional stage is held in 5 UN region groups including the African Group, the Asia-Pacific Group, the Eastern European Group, the Latin American and Caribbean Group, the Western European and Others Group. The best 5 teams from each UN region are then invited to participate in the pre-final and final rounds of the Competition at the headquarter of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, where they move on competing on basis of their written memorials and oral pleadings.

（World Human Rights Moot Court Conference, Geneva）

On 20 July, a one-day World Human Rights Moot Court Conference was held at Palais des Nations, Geneva. Mr Eric Tistounet (chief of the Human Rights Council Branch), Mr Christof Heyns (member of the UN Human Rights committee), Mr Marc Limon (executive director of Universal Rights Group), Ms Ivana Machonova Schellongova (UN Human Rights Officer), Ms Veronica Gomez (Chairperson of Global Campus of Human Rights), Mr John Fisher (advocacy director of Human Rights Watch) participated in the conference. Fudan University team was invited to attend the event, Dr. Tu Yunxin, the coach of the Fudan team, made a free speech during the Conference. On the same day, Fudan University team was given a warm reception by the Chinese officers who work at UN Office in Geneva and then visited the hall where Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered the speech of“building a human community with shared destiny" on 18 January 2017.

 （Fudan University team in Palais des Nations, Geneva）

This year, Fudan University team stands out among various brilliant teams around the world, with its solid legal knowledge, excellent competence in oral pleading and remarkable team work. In the context of Fudan University’s "Double First-Class Plan" (which refers to "world-class university" and "world-class discipline"), Fudan Law School has enhanced its educational programme to cultivate outstanding creative international legal talents and has made enormous achievements in recent years. It is firmly believed that Chinese universities are committed to further achievements in the competition on the global level and make more contributions to the legal development and educational enterprise of human rights in China.