Since 2020, Equality Now and the SOAWR Coalition have hosted the Africa Gender Equality Moot Court Competition with the primary objective of enhancing law students’ research, understanding, and application of the Maputo Protocol and other regional and international human rights instruments to advance the rights of women and girls in Africa.
2024 Moot Court Competition
Equality Now, in collaboration with the SOAWR Coalition and Kenyatta University School of Law, is hosting the 3rd edition of the Africa Gender Equality Moot Court Competition (AGEMCC) from July 2024 to December 2024. This continent-wide competition, conducted in French and English, seeks to nurture the interest of the next generation of lawyers in women’s and girls’ rights in Africa, emphasizing the role of continental and international human rights instruments. The Competition challenges students to engage in comparative research on legal standards and develop arguments on the intersection between women’s and girls’ rights in Africa and international law. Participants are highly encouraged to leverage their country’s legal and social contexts to address challenges in promoting and protecting women’s and girls’ rights.
Theme: Legal Dilemmas of Commercial Surrogacy in Africa
The 3rd AGEMCC spotlights the legal complexities of commercial surrogacy in Africa, a practice facilitated by scientific and technological progress and exacerbated by the lack of comprehensive national legal frameworks governing surrogacy arrangements in Africa, where it is currently in its infancy stage. Participants will explore critical issues, including:
- Exploitation of surrogate mothers by agencies, often serving as intermediaries between surrogate mothers and intending parents, particularly in the absence of legal oversight
- Legal protections for children born through surrogacy, including safeguards against statelessness, particularly in instances where conflicts arise between the nationality laws of commissioning parents and surrogate mothers’ home countries
- Transmission of prenatal rights and the rights of surrogate mothers, particularly in cases where intended parents revoke contracts or request actions against the surrogate’s will
- Enforcement of surrogacy agreements and the parental rights of all parties involved in surrogacy arrangements
Key competition information & registration
About the organisers
Equality Now
Equality Now, founded in 1992, is an international women’s rights organization that works to achieve legal and systemic change that addresses violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world, with a focus on ending sexual violence, harmful practices, sexual exploitation, and achieving legal equality. Combining grassroots activism with international, regional, and national legal advocacy, Equality Now’s approach links high-level policy advocacy and global activism with support and legal advice to grassroots partners and networks working on specific cases of women and girls in order to promote change at all levels.
The Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) Coalition
The Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) is a coalition of over 70 national, regional, and international civil society organizations working on women’s rights in over 30 African countries. SOAWR was formed with the principal objective of advocating for the ratification, domestication, and implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol).
Kenyatta University School of Law
Kenyatta University School of Law is a fully accredited School by the Council of Legal Education, Kenya that offers Bachelor of Laws Programme. Established on 29th February 2012 and with a vision of being a premier Law School educating legal entrepreneurs of conscience, competence, and compassion with the ability to meet the challenges of leadership and the administration of justice in Africa and beyond, the School aims at providing legal writing and research skills to the highest standards through developing cutting-edge capacity building, promoting holistic student development and increasing sensitivity to community needs in order to ensure global competitiveness.