Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Gears Up for Virtual Moot Court Competition and Intensive Summer Program
May 13, 2021
Each summer, the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law hosts the Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Competition and its world-renowned Program on Advanced Studies in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, providing practical approaches to human rights law and helping to strengthen humanitarian laws around the world.
Last year, the Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Competition celebrated its 25th Anniversary and this year’s competition will again take place virtually from May 16-28. The Competition challenges student competitors and human rights practitioners alike by engaging them in cutting-edge legal discussions concerning the Inter-American human rights legal system – one of the world’s most active international legal bodies – in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Since its inception in 1995, the Competition has trained more than 4,800 student and faculty participants from over 360 universities from the Americas and beyond. The hypothetical case operates as the basis of the competition, and students argue the merits of this case by writing legal statements and preparing oral arguments for presentation in front of human rights experts. This year’s timely topic is “Human Rights and States of Emergency: Unexpected Crisis and New Challenges.”
2021 Summer Program Highlights Women Experts
From June 1-18, the Academy will host a select group of women human rights experts from the U.S. and around the world to teach in the Program of Advanced Studies on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, the summer component of the law school’s LL.M. in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. These experts include women who have held senior positions with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, The World Bank, and the Organization of American States, as well as professors and international human rights leaders.
“To be able to gather this impressive group of women, world-renowned experts in their field, is a tremendous gain for American University Washington College of Law, an institution that has been at the forefront promoting women rights. Students will benefit from direct interaction via live classes with these experts and begin to develop networking relationships with their fellow classmates, human rights scholars, defenders, advocates and law students,” said Professor Claudia Martin, co-director of the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. “We are proud to be one of the premier institutions in the United States and around the world to offer this kind of curriculum and programs, and the only Academic Institution in the U.S. with programs in English, Spanish and Portuguese.”
- Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, who brings over 25 years of experience working at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), along with Viviana Waisman, Founder, President, and Executive Director, Women's Link Worldwide, they will teach the course Women and International Human Rights Law.
- Helen Duffy, founder of Human Rights in Practice in the Netherlands, will enrich the conversation on human rights protection from a civil society perspective in the course International Justice for Human Rights Violations.
- Siobhan McInerney-Lankford, serves as Senior Counsel at The World Bank, and will be joined by Margaret Roggensack, Director of Market Engagement at Humane Society International, to teach the class Human Rights and Development.
- Tara Melish, Director and Professor of Law at Buffalo Human Rights Center, SUNY Buffalo Law School, will teach the course Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, alongside Flavia Piovesan, Commissioner, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, (OAS).
- Macarena Saez, Fellow in International Legal Studies and Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law, will teach the course The Rights of Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Groups.
- Viviana Krsticevic, Executive Director, Center for Justice and International Law, Washington, D.C., will teach the course Litigio y Activismo en Derechos Humanos (Human Rights Litigation and Activism).
- Laurence Burgorgue-Larsen, Professor of Law at the Sorbonne Law School (Universite de Paris 1)
- Julissa Mantilla, Commissioner, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Organization of American States (OAS), and Daniela Kravetz, Former Rapporteur on the State of Affairs of Human Rights in Eritrea, United Nations, will join us to teach the course, Mujeres y el Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos (Women and International Human Rights Law).
- Hélène Tigroudja, Member, Human Rights Committee, United Nations and Elizabeth Salmón, Member, Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, United Nations will teach the course Derecho Internacional Humanitario (International Human Rights Law).
- Antonia Urrejola, President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Organization of American States (OAS)
- Claudia Martin, Co-director and Professorial Lecturer-in-Residence, Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, American University Washington College of Law, will teach Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos (Inter-American System of Human Rights, addressing the development of human rights in the Inter-American System and the way in which the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights protect those rights within the framework of their respective mandates.
For more information and to register for the program’s summer courses, visit https://www.wcl.american.edu/impact/initiatives-programs/hracademy/advanced.