HELGA PEDERSEN MOOT COURT COMPETITION
SAMIRA SAFAROVA
Vice President in charge of Academic Activities
The Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition, formerly known as the European Human Rights Moot Court Competition, grows in relevance and importance with every year, and being in charge of organising the 10th HPMCC was of utmost importance to me from the second I entered the office in August. Preparations and the organisation of the 10th Edition were achieved in several stages with the ever-lasting support of our HPMCC Team: Aušra Abraitytė, Giulia Maria Servida, Linnéa Regnell and Ketevan Makharashvili. It is my pleasure to present the sections:
and a Q&A. As a result of a strong commitment before and after the launch, we encouraged 59 teams from 26 different countries to test their motivation and skill in the field of human rights by registering for the 10th edition.
Written and Regional Rounds Upon successfully closing the registration, we worked jointly with the HPMCC team on building and organising the Written and Regional Rounds. Like in the previous years, three ELSA Groups were appointed to organise the Regional Rounds: ELSA Kyiv (with ELSA Ukraine), ELSA Athens (with ELSA Greece) and ELSA Wrocław. Despite the fact that we intended to organise the Regional Rounds in a physical format, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and related restrictions the three Regional Rounds were held online, with the support of the Coderblock platform. While we were putting our efforts all together to overcome the challenge of the ongoing pandemic and virtualisation of the Regional Rounds, another unexpected obstacle was waiting for us which affected not just the organisation of the Moot Court Competition but all the truths that we, as law students and young lawyers, believe in - human rights, the foundation and the primary objective of the Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition. With the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine in February, ELSA International had to postpone the Kyiv Regional Round from 4-6 March 2022 to 18-20 March 2022. From that moment onwards, the organisational responsibilities switched to ELSA International. I am truly grateful for all the contributions made by the Organising Committees of the Regional Rounds, especially: Elpiniki from ELSA Greece, Maciej from ELSA Wrocław, Adil and Oleksandr from ELSA Ukraine, for their hard work and dedication. With their help, we had the opportunity to gather teams on one virtual platform and to ensure the academic quality of the event despite all the challenges faced.
Rebranding, Launch, and Mooting 101 Webinar During the 79th International Council Meeting, the Council decided to rebrand the European Human Rights Moot Court Competition to carry the name of the first female Judge of the European Court of Human Rights - Helga Pedersen. In August, together with our Marketeer Tony, we put efforts into creating a logo which represents the values and objectives of the Competition towards externals. After developing the new logo, our focus was shifted to preparations of all necessary materials for the launch of the 10th edition which took place on the 20th of September 2021 and lasted until the 10th of November 2021. The Case was written by Zuzana Kovalova and Slavica Čubrić who addressed present-day legal matters related to natural disasters and environmental protection. Considering the rebranding, one of my main priorities for the 10th edition was to ensure that the competition with a new name could be delivered to a wide range of law students and young lawyers. With that purpose in mind, Mathieu and I organised a Mooting 101 Webinar during the registration period where Ms Dr Amaya Ubeda de Torres, who works at the Council of Europe as a Senior Legal Officer, shared her knowledge and experience on how to improve mooting skills; the presentation was followed by an introduction of both moot court competitions of ELSA ANNUAL REPORT
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