The United Nations Human Rights Training and Documentation Centre for South-West Asia and the Arab Region conducted the online oral preliminary rounds of the second edition of the Arab Human Rights Moot Court Competition.

Following the assessment of the written memorials, (62 out of the 68 registered universities submitted their written memorials), the oral preliminary rounds were organized online over four days from 2 to 5 August 2026. Approximately 25 judges with legal, academic and human rights expertise participated as members of the jury, assessing the teams based on established evaluation criteria, including their knowledge and application of international human rights law, legal analysis and argumentation, use of facts and legal authorities, oral advocacy skills, and ability to respond to questions from the judges.

Based on the consolidated evaluation results of the oral rounds, 15 teams were selected to qualify for the final stage of the competition, which will take place in person in Doha, Qatar. The final stage will provide the qualified teams with an opportunity to further demonstrate their legal knowledge and advocacy skills through in-person moot court hearings.

The competition initially brought together 68 universities from across the Arab region, representing Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.