Law event
Workshop on Mooting: Human trafficking issue
Moot court is an activity peculiar to law schools in which participants attend in simulated court proceedings, starting with the drafting of briefs and participating in oral arguments before a bench of Judges. In moot court, the preparation and delivery of argumentation provides students with the opportunity to think critically, develop their academic research skills, improve their communication abilities, solve problems creatively, and increase their self-confidence. Keeping that in mind, Dhaka University Moot Court Society was established last year to create a platform for exposure enabling students to evaluate and strengthen their skills developed through mooting, in particular, a separate orientation and initiation program for novices, meaning those students with no mooting experience. Since then, DUMCS has been going on encouraging students to take part in moots in order to have a taste of practice in court procedure and also develop certain skills that every law student should possesses. In this consecutive process, the DUMCS organized a workshop on Mooting based on Human Trafficking issue in collaboration with the Daywalka Foundation (TDF) & International Organization for Migration (IOM); at the Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban, Dhaka University on April 30, 2008. Selected student representatives from the six Departments of Law of the University of Dhaka; Eastern University; Southeast University; Prime University, Stamford University and Northern University participated in the workshop.
The Daywalka Foundation (TDF) is a US based International Human Rights Organization working on human Trafficking and other human rights related issues. TDF established a Women and Children Security Resource Center (WCSRC) - a neutral space where women and children, NGOs, legal community and others can share their resources. As part of its program in Bangladesh in workshop was organised that included a demo moot competition where the case was based on human trafficking issue. In workshop was inaugurated by Professor Dr. Taslima Monsoor, Chairman, Department of Law, University of Dhaka. Ms. Rosy Hossain, Regional Director, South Asia, TDF and Professor Dr. Sumaiya Khair, Department of Law, Dhaka University gave their valuaable observations. Respected teachers of the Department of Law, Dhaka University were also present on the occasion.
After the tea break, a moot competition on a human trafficking case took place before a bench of three Judges. Both the team of the trial consisted of two counsels and one researcher who are the students of the Department of Law, University of Dhaka; where the judges were the respected teachers of the same Department. After the exciting Mock Trial, from Ms. Rosy Hossain, Regional Director of TDF delivered a power point presentation on “The Concepts of Trafficking in Persons, its Causes, Consequences and Challenges.”
Then the next part of the workshop was an interactive session on “Effective Mooting Techniques” arranged by Taslima Yasmin, Vice President, DUMCS and Christabel Randolph, General Secretary, DUMCS. Both of them are the students of LL.M of the University of Dhaka who were the glorious members of the winning team of the South Asian Regional Moot Court Competition, held in Delhi in 2006. During that session, the participants articulated their queries about various points regarding Mooting.
At 01:00 P.M., the Judges pronounced the judgments of the mock trial where the Defense won the case. Then the judges expressed their observation about the whole procedures, which threw lights on the lacuna of the counselors and their presentation. They also encouraged the participants and the interested students, to get involved in Mooting.
At the closing session of the workshop, Professor Dr. Borhan Uddin Khan, Dean, Faculty of Law and the President of the DUMCS, handed over the certificates among the mooters and the participants of the workshop. In his imperative speech on all about the workshop, he encouraged the interested and enthusiastic students to participate more and more in mooting in order to nurture certain essential skills such as art of persuasion, way of putting a case precisely and intelligibly, fluency and clear enunciation of principles of Law. The workshop formally came to an end by the closing address of Mr. Nazmuzzaman Bhuian; Assistant Professor and Moderator; Dhaka University Moot Court Society.
-Law Desk.
