Participants during the event.
Doha, Qatar: The Human Rights Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI) participated in the international final round of the Global Moot Court on Freedom of Expression (Monroe Price Media Moot Court Competition), which was held in Oxford, United Kingdom, from April 13 to 18, 2026.
The competition was organised by the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford and the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. A total of 30 teams representing 32 countries participated in the competition. The Doha Institute team argued as claimant against a team from India, and then as respondent against teams from the United States and Austria.
The Doha Institute qualified for the international round after passing the regional preliminary round for the Middle East and North Africa, which was held in Cairo in February.
The team included the following students: Aya Talahmeh (Palestine), Farah Atatri (Palestine), Suzan Al-Najjar (Egypt), Saif El-Din Zaghdoud (Egypt), and Wilds Al-Wartani (Tunisia), under the supervision of Dr. Moataz Al-Fujairi, Head of the Human Rights Programme.
Dr. Basel Salloukh, Acting Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the DI, expressed his pride in the Human Rights Programme’s participation in this prestigious international competition.
He noted that the achievement reflects the Institute’s high academic standards and the students’ ability to engage critically with issues of freedom of expression in international legal contexts, in line with the Institute’s mission to connect academic knowledge with contemporary human rights challenges.
Launched in 2008, the Monroe Price Noot Court Competition is one of the most prominent international law competitions in the fields of freedom of expression and media and technology law. Participants are required to advocate in complex virtual cases addressing the intersection of freedom of expression with national security, hate speech, and digital privacy.
The competition is named in honour of Professor Monroe Price, founder of the Comparative Media Programme at the University of Oxford, who dedicated his life to defending freedom of opinion and expression.
