This Friday, January 27, at the new Courthouse of the Court of Cassation, will take place the final of the 2nd Edition of the Human Rights Advocacy Competition 2016-2017, organized by the Office of Human Rights in Haiti (BDHH). The aim of this Competition is to identify and showcase talented young graduates in law who will take their first steps in the world of advocacy by confronting each other in the context of human rights jousting.

It should be recalled that 32 men and women graduating students graduating in law from different universities in the country were shortlisted in December 2016 by the BDHH on the basis of their written contribution on the subject of "prolonged preventive detention in the Haitian judicial system".

The 32 candidates clashed in the first weeks of January during three rounds of oratorical jousting at Quisqueya University. These elimination dealt with subjects as diverse as: the right of interference, the gestation for others, the expulsion of unqualified persons, parliamentary immunities, the right to strike for medical staff...

At the end of the 1/4 finals, four students : Pierrin Noël Rosemina, Joachim James Peterson, Thélus Taff Nike and Alabre Makenson have qualified to participate in this final stage which will give rise to two semi-final, a small final and a grand finale. The four selected themes which will oppose each time "One for and one against" are : private justice; the use of a state of emergency; the responsibility of the United Nations in the cholera epidemic and the legitimacy of international criminal justice.

This final is organized under the presidency of a prestigious jury, in the presence of the President of the Court of Cassation and many guests. Representatives of the Embassy of Switzerland, the Embassy of Canada, the Foundation FOKAL and the Agence universitaire de la francophonie (AUF), partners of the BDHH who helped to achieve this great adventure, will speak at the outcome of the deliberations before awarding of prizes to the laureates.

HL/ HaitiLibre