Colombia's Universidad Sergio Arboleda Takes Top Honors at 21st Annual Inter-American Moot Court Competition
American University Washington College of Law hosted the 21st Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Competition from May 22-27. This year's competition continued to draw large numbers, with 100 participating teams, from 24 different countries, who competed in English, Spanish, or Portuguese, and included 11 teams who were new to the event. The Competition brought 325 participants and coaches, over 200 attorney judges, 76 observers, and 24 volunteers from around the globe to the law school's new Tenley Campus. Out of the 100 teams who participated, 20 advanced to the Semifinals. Only two schools made it all the way to the Final Round: Universidad Sergio Arboleda, from Colombia, and Faculdade de Direito da Fundação Escola Superior do Ministério Público, from Brazil. Discussions centered around the topic of "Extractive Industries and Human Rights."
The Honor Panel for the Final Round, which was held on May 27, in the law school's Stephen S. Weinstein Courtroom, comprised renowned human rights experts and scholars: Professor David Hunter, director of AUWCL's International Legal Studies Program; Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, assistant executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; Professor Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón, co-director of the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law; and the co-authors of the Competition's hypothetical case, Katya Salazar, executive director of the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF), and Daniel Cerqueira, DPLF's senior program officer for Extractive Industries and Human Rights.
At the end of the Final Round, Universidad Sergio Arboleda was declared the winner. In addition to taking home the trophy, the student winners earned an internship at the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in Washington, DC, as part of their award. The students on the team that placed second were awarded an internship at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica.
The Competition was co-sponsored by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The 21st edition of the Moot Court was made possible with the generous support of the Ford Foundation.
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