African human rights moot court competition begins.

The 15th African human rights moot court competition is underway at Addis Ababa University (AAU) until 2 September. The contest is being hosted by the law faculty at AAU in conjunction with the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Teams from some 70 law faculties in countries across Africa are taking part, according to a statement from AAU. The moot court aims to educate the future legal practitioners and academics from across the continent with regard to human rights laws as well as providing experience in formulating and presenting legal argument on human rights issues. The university added that this years edition in Addis Ababa provides an opportunity to link the ideals of the moot with the work of the African Union (AU), which is headquartered in the Ethiopian capital. On paper Africa has a regional human rights body, the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights, which was established by protocol in 1998, 12 years after the entry into force of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, concluded under the aegis of the Organization of African Unity (OAU, the precursor to the AU) in Gambia in 1981. However, the tribunal is yet to become operational.