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Herald Reporter

two University of Zimbabwe law students were recently crowned champions after winning the Africa Gender Equality Moot Court Competition held in Nairobi, Kenya.

Claudio Faro and Nadia Mutisi, both final-year students, were declared winners of the competition comprising more than 60 teams with the top four teams to emerge from the preliminary rounds going to Nairobi. 

The competition ran for two days early last week. The annual competition is the only one in Africa dedicated to the promotion and protection of the rights of women in the continent. 

Out of over 60 teams from 15 African countries, the UZ team qualified into the top 16 and then proceeded to the quarter-finals which were held virtually in November last year. 

The team excelled in the quarter-finals, obtaining impressive scores and broke into the semi-final rounds.

The top four teams were then flown to Nairobi to compete in the semi-final and final rounds.

The competition was hosted by Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) and Equality Now, a global non-governmental organisation which has been advocating the rights of women and girls since 1992.

One of Kenya’s leading tertiary institutions, Strathmore University, traditionally hosts the event.

The moot question presented a case obtaining in the hypothetical land of Akunda and required the law students to engage on matters concerning gender equality, the political participation of women as well as digital rights. 

This year, the competition received much praise for its diversity and inclusion as it also allowed for francophone teams to argue the case in French.

The champions under the Francophone category were students from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ryan Migani and Murhula Bahati.

The students also had an opportunity to meet and interact with the former deputy chief justice of Kenya, Justice Dr Nancy Baraza. 

Mutisi was also recognised as the first runner up female speaker in the Anglophone category. The two were awarded internships to work at Equality Now or at any organisation that is a member of the SOAWR coalition.

 The team is coached by Advocate Tazorora Musarurwa, a part time lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and legal practitioner who also travelled with them.