The Paramount Chief of Mampong, Daasebere Osei Bonsu II is rallying all paramountcies in the Ashanti region to join in the fight against illegal mining popularly known as 'galamsey'.

Speaking at the 32^nd Christof Heyns African Human Rights Moot Court Competition, he urged all paramountcies in the Ashanti region to emulate his example and kick out 'galamsey' from their towns.

“Some of the paramountcies have to be very bold and stick their neck and chest out to challenge the Minerals Commission and the others.

“Far from sounding boastful I kicked them out of my kingdom so they can’t come to Mampong and dig any hole for gold. I have set the pace and now others within the Ashanti kingdom paramountcies have been bold and assertive in challenging the Minerals Commission so please be bold,” he said.

The Christof Heyns African Human Rights Moot Court Competition is the largest gathering of students, academics and judges around the theme of human rights in Africa.

The annual event brings together all law faculties in Africa, whose top students argue a hypothetical human rights case as if they were before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The Competition continuously prepares new generations of lawyers to argue cases of alleged human rights violations before the African Court.

Since its creation in 1992, 170 universities from 47 African countries have taken part in this permanent fixture on the Africa legal education calendar.

The Moot has been a catalyst for the establishment of the leading programmes in the field of human rights teaching and research in Africa. In 2022, the 31st edition of the Moot Court Competition was hosted at The British University in Egypt, Cairo. The event brought together 45 teams from 19AfricanCountries.

KNUST is hosting the 2023 Moot Court Competition

Daasebere Osei Bonsu II also urged that the next edition of the competition should consist of some traditional rulers in these discussions to know their views on human rights.

“Therefore, in the next conference, I suggest to you the organizers that in the future as much as the theme admits to it, selected traditional rulers should be invited to participate and be heard on their views on such topical and sensitive human rights issues,” he said

Mr Yaw Boafo, President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), said the competition provides an opportunity for students to acquire skills outside the classroom.

“The opportunity to participate in any moot court competition is to be taken seriously by every law student as it helps students to inculcate all the habit and follow all the policies and procedures that are followed in legal proceedings in real court situations. It affords students the opportunities to acquire skills that are not ordinarily available at the academic stage of legal training,” he said.