The Raoul Wallenberg Institute, with financial support from the Embassy of Sweden in Zimbabwe supported the participation of the University of Zimbabwe Moot Court Team to compete in the All Africa International Humanitarian Law Moot Court Competition hosted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Nairobi Regional Delegation.
The competition was held from 3-8 November in Nairobi, Kenya and drew the participation of 9 Anglophone countries from all over Africa who had won their respective rounds of the competition namely Ethiopia, South Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. The competition kicked off with a cultural presentation from each of the teams resonating their unique cultures from their different countries.
Throughout the week, all students were taken through lectures around modern forms of warfare like cyber wars, direct participation of civilians in hostilities, principles of distinction, proportionality, necessity and humanity in conflict, classification of conflict and identifying protected objects under international humanitarian law, among other topics.
The students would then go through role plays in the afternoons, based on the lectures of the day. Presentations were made by members of staff from the ICRC, Kenya Defence Forces, Diakonia, former participants of the moot and a High Court Judge from the International Crimes Division of the High Court of Uganda, Justice Susan Okalany.
The week long role plays led to the selection of semi-finalists, who included the team from Zimbabwe, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Uganda and Zimbabwe proceeded to the final rounds where the University of Zimbabwe team comprising of Munyaradzi Musarurwa, Rutendo Gukwa and Nyasha Bhuza emerged as the overall winner of the competition. Nyasha Bhuza also won the overall best speaker of the competition award.
Support to the regional competition on IHL falls under the Zimbabwe Human Rights Capacity Development Programme 2024-2026, with funding from the Embassy of Sweden in Zimbabwe.
Hear from the winning team on their experience during the national moot court competition in Zimbabwe, a month prior!