A team of students from Fundação Getulio Vargas’ Rio de Janeiro Law School came first in the 28^th edition of the Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Competition, held last week in Washington D.C. The event, hosted by American University, was focused this year on “Equality and Human Rights: Combating Racial Discrimination.”

This is an event that aims to train law students in using the inter-American legal system as a legitimate forum for redressing human rights violations. To win first place, the FGV Rio de Janeiro Law School beat 45 teams from American, European and Latin American universities.

As well as coming first in the competition, the team also received the prizes for “Best orator on behalf of victims in Portuguese,” won by student Eduardo Felipe da Silva Senra, and “Best victims.” The winning team was made up of students Amanda Simões de Lima Paiva, Eduardo Felipe da Silva Senra, Giovanna Camargo Messner Neves, Julia do Carmo Aranha, Leonardo Neuenschwander Chammas do Nascimento and Pérola Kim Dias Rodrigues de Carvalho. Students Leandro Léo Rebelo and Pedro Burlini de Oliveira also participated as coaches.

“Taking part in this moot has been a dream since I chose to study law. I was sure it would happen at some point, but I didn’t imagine it would turn out as it did. To begin with, participating in the competition before studying international law seemed impossible to me, but thanks to various field projects, I learned about the functioning of international courts by looking at judgments and data analysis. In addition, my team members and I couldn’t afford to pay for the travel, registration and other expenses, but FGV was willing to pay for everything. Finally, competing transformed my self-esteem. I have never felt so capable of achieving my dreams inside and outside international law. I am very grateful for the opportunity given and I am very keen to participate in other competitions,” said Eduardo Felipe, one of the team’s orators.