The Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court 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. The Competition is organized by the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law of American University’s Washington College of Law.

Current edition: 2023 Theme: “Equality And Human Rights: Confronting Racial Discrimination” Case: Julia Mendoza et al. v. State of Mekinés. Materials for the current edition are available on the Competition website.

In order to contribute to the preparation by participants in the Competition, the Codification Division has compiled resources available on the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law (AVL) for the 2023 edition of the Competition. Students will be able to draw on the resources available on the AVL website, including the Lecture Series and the Mini-Series, together with the related materials used in the preparation of lectures, the Historic Archives, as well as the International Law Handbook.

Lecture Series

The Lecture Series contains a permanent collection of lectures of enduring value on virtually every subject of international law delivered by leading international law scholars and practitioners from different regions, legal systems, cultures and sectors of the legal profession. Each lecture is accompanied by a list of related materials linking to documents available online. Lectures are available in video and audio formats.

Mini-Series

The Mini-Series is a series of lectures delivered by leading international law scholars which aims to provide a general overview of the core topics of international law, primarily intended for users with basic or little knowledge of international law. Each mini-series provides a comprehensive introduction of the concerned topic and presents key issues for further study, which are often covered by specialized lectures in the Lecture Series.

Historic Archives

The Historic Archives is a unique resource which contains significant international law instruments. Each entry contains an introduction to a particular instrument prepared by a scholar or practitioner with expertise on the subject, information on its procedural history and related documents, as well as the text and status of the instrument. It is accompanied by available audiovisual materials relating to the negotiation and adoption of the instrument at meetings or diplomatic conferences.

International Law Handbook

The International Law Handbook is a collection of instruments used by the Codification Division as study materials for its training courses under the Programme of Assistance. It is intended to be used as a general work of reference. It comprises four books, available free of charge on the AVL website:

• Book One contains the Charter of the United Nations and the Statute of the International Court of Justice, as well as instruments relating to the law of treaties, subjects of international law, diplomatic and consular relations, international responsibility, peaceful settlement of international disputes, international peace and security, international human rights law as well as movement of persons and international migration law. (see also French version)