From left, the Republic of Niger delegation: Shummi Chowdhury, Amanda Hoefer, Johann Ebongom, Chanel Chauvet, and Nelly Ndounteng. The team’s 6th member, Rebecca Wackym, is pictured in the photo below.

Georgia Law students emerged victorious in last weekend’s Southeast Model African Union competition, hosted here in Athens by the University of Georgia African Studies Institute. Twenty-one teams from a dozen universities and colleges took part; we at the law school’s Dean Rusk International Law Center were proud cosponsors.

The team won Best Delegation Award, and thus will compete against teams from across the country in the National Model African Union Conference to be held February 23-26, 2017, at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

What’s more, every one of the 6 students on the Georgia Law team won individual awards. They and the AU committees in which they represented their appointed country, the Republic of Niger (flag at right), are:

► Johann Ebongom, LLM, Committee on Economic Matters: Outstanding Delegate and Outstanding Parliamentarian

► Chanel Chauvet, 2L and Dean Rusk International Law Center Student Ambassador, Committee on Peace and Security: Outstanding Delegate

► Nelly Ndounteng, LLM, Committee on Social Matters: Outstanding Delegate

► Shummi Chowdhury, 1L and Dean Rusk International Law Center Student Ambassador, Committee on Pan-Africanism and Continental Unity: Honorable Mention

► Amanda Hoefer, 1L, Committee on Democracy, Governance and Human Rights: Honorable Mention

► Rebecca Wackym, 1L, Executive Council: Participation Award

The conference was founded 37 years ago by Dr. Michael C. Nwanze, who teaches at Howard’s Department of Political Science. Then, the continent’s regional group was the Organization of African Unity. Next year will be the 15th that the conference has borne the name of the OAU’s successor, the African Union.