2024 Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Competition
2024 topic:
Protection and Guarantee of Human Rights in Digital Environment
About the Competition
The Competition is a unique trilingual (English, Portuguese, and Spanish) event established to train law students on how to use the Inter-American human rights legal system as a legitimate forum for redressing human rights violations. Since its inception in 1995, it has trained over 4900 students and faculty participants from over 365 universities from the Americas and beyond. Written on a cutting-edge topic currently debated within the Inter-American system, the hypothetical case operates as the basis of the competition, and students argue the merits of this case by writing legal memoranda and preparing oral arguments for presentation in front of human rights experts acting as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
aBOUT 2024 registration:
Registration for the 2024 #IAMOOT is open. Please be advised that in order to complete your registration, you must have a Google Account. Click on the upper right button on this screen to access the registration forms. The button says: "Registration and other forms". You are required to be logged in to your Google Account to provide all the requested information successfully. Furthermore, be advised that besides IAMOOT regular Google Forms, you must also fill out mandatory American University forms. This is especially important for those teams that pay via credit card. If any problem or question arises during your registration process, don't hesitate to get in touch with us at iamoot@wcl.american.edu
aBOUT 2024 topic:
We are thrilled to announce the topic for the 2024 Inter-American Moot Court Competition will be: "Protection and Guarantees of Human Rights in Digital Environments.". We have decided to collaborate with Pedro Vaca Villareal, the current Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (RELE, by its acronym in Spanish), to write the 2024 hypothetical case. Pedro is a Colombian lawyer with over 12 years of professional experience, specializing in litigating on behalf of victims of free speech violations.
The collaboration is part of our Cooperation Agreement with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which seeks to strengthen Human Rights education throughout the Americas region and worldwide. You can learn more about the RELE's work here: https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/expression/index.asp
Pedro will be joined by two co-authors: Vanessa Lopez Ochoa and Giovanny Padovam Ferreira. Vanessa is a Colombian lawyer with expertise in litigation and advocacy for free speech before Colombian high courts and international forums. Currently, she is a researcher in the Technology, Transparency, and Human Rights field at the non-profit organization Dejusticia. Giovanny has been a human rights specialist at the Office of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression of the IACHR since 2022. He was previously selected as the 2021-2022 Orlando Sierra Fellow (OFSROE/IACHR). Giovanny, a former IAMOOT participant, is also a member of the Staff Committee of IAMOOT 2024 and one of our hybrid LL.M. students.
The Academy chose this theme for our 29th Competition because now it occupies a central role in the human rights debate. However, it is at a very early stage compared with other areas of Human Rights Law. What we cannot negate is the fact we live in a digital context where vast amounts of information can significantly impact the lives of citizens. Thus, it is essential to safeguard human rights, which can often be limited in this new context, which is not equally accessible to everyone. Discussions about privacy, access to information, journalism, and censorship are a few of the critical topics to consider. While we dived more into it for the 2024 edition, we invite all our community to join us for another successful #IAMOOT edition.
Be part of the 2024 Technical Committee!
IAMOOT Staff is currently seeking Volunteer members to help us with daily logistical activities, including but not limited to language translation. We're searching for dedicated law students proficient in English, Portuguese, or Spanish to be part of our remote team.
Eligibility:
• Current law school students (preferably from a past participating university).
• Proficiency in at least two of the official languages of the moot court (English/Portuguese/Spanish).
• A strong interest in the moot court.
If you want to know more details, go to the official announcement here:
Apply now using this link: https://bit.ly/463aROF
Deadline: November 27, 2023
If chosen for an interview, you will be contacted directly at the email address provided on the application form.