Makerere University Wins The 11th Interuniversity Human Rights Competition

The School of Law Makerere University won the 11^th annual Inter University Human Rights Competition organized by the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, Uganda. The competition was held at Mountains of the Moon University from the 17^th to 18^th September 2020.

The Competition was aimed at instigating discussion on various Human Rights Issues among students at the University and mold Human Rights aware citizenry in Uganda. This year’s competition that was hosted amidst a worldwide COVID19 Pandemic saw strict adherence to Standard Operating Procedures such as, social distancing, wearing nose masks and sanitizing.

Three Law Students namelyMayanja Benson Conrad LLB II, Joshua Kingdom LLB II and Kimbowa Deborah LLB I represented the School of Law at the event.

The competition was tailored around the theme “Access to Counsel; A matter of life or death.” 12 of the 39 Universities under the FHRI Human Rights Program participated. Itincluded a written 4-page essay on a given Human Rights topic and this constituted 40% of the total score. Makerere University addressed the topic “Access to Counsel; A matter of life or death”.

The Second Phase of the competition were oral presentations of the papers submitted, which constituted 60% of the total score.The submissions were made before a panel of 5 judges (3 physical judges and 2 virtual) and the audience of participating students. On completion of an oral 15-minute speech, the audience was permitted to ask the presenters questions pertaining to the submission and have the presenter respond accordingly.

Makerere University realised 84.6% and was rated best overall making this the third win in a row.   The team was awarded certificates and cash sums to both the University as an Institution and the individual participants.Kampala International University as the 1st Runners Up Certificate while Uganda Christian University was the 2nd Runners up.