STU students beat world's best at human rights moot court in Geneva

Navy Vezina and Abbie LeBlanc returned to Fredericton over the weekend as moot court world champions at the United Nations in Geneva, where students simulated court proceedings and participated in oral arguments with judges. 

The St. Thomas University women, who are working on their bachelor of arts degrees, were up against 80 law students from 37 universities around the world, including Ivy League teams from the U.S. and a team from Oxford University.

"We found out in June we were going to Geneva, so we had three weeks to prepare these oral arguments and get ourselves to Switzerland," said Vezina.

Law students vs. undergrads

When they arrived at the at the Ninth Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition, they realized most of the other competitors were already law students.

LeBlanc, who is entering her third year at STU, is doing triple honours in human rights, great books and political science. Vezina is a philosophy major and entering her fifth year.

The moot court team at St. Thomas University is made up of six women, including LeBlanc and Vezina, the members who actually do the speaking before the judges.  

Experience competing at  an American moot court competition with Amanda DiPaolo, director of the human rights program at STU, gave Vezina and LeBlanc a competitive edge that helped them during this new challenge, they said.

DiPaolo went with them to Switzerland.

"Her help in preparing our legal arguments during those three weeks was really indispensable," LeBlanc said.

The cases

The cases they argued involved different strands of international law.

They included issues such as a right-to-life violation involving drone strikes and the disappearance of a film crew's boat on high seas, islanders seeking asylum in a neighbouring state and whether the state was providing adequate protection, and an allegation of discrimination when a woman is fired by a film company.

The presentation of arguments is with the judges, not with the other opponents. Each team has about 15 minutes to speak directly to the judges, who interrupt with questions.

The girls said they barely saw Geneva during the whole week because they spent free moments practising and researching.

"It definitely paid off," LeBlanc said.

Competition was tough. The STU team qualified for the final round over Oxford by 0.03 per cent.

In the final round, STU won against the University of Buenos Aires.

World champions

"What gave us our edge was the creativity of our arguments," Vezina said. "We had some arguments we didn't hear other teams making. … I became an expert in maritime law and piracy prevention."

In the high seas case, they said, most people focused on the drone strikes whereas they chose to focus on the part of the case that took place in the ocean. This made it hard for other teams to respond to their arguments.

We were all there for the same reason: to protect human rights.- Navy Vezina, student at STU 

The prize for winning the competition is a scholarship for a human rights implementation academy at Lucerne University in Switzerland.

Vezina said that despite all, the competition was surprisingly friendly.

"You really did feel you were in the United Nations. We were all there for the same reason: to protect human rights."

When the women arrived home in Fredericton on Sunday, a big party awaited them at the airport with flowers and balloons.

"It was a great feeling to come home and finally celebrate it," said Vezina