Radio Miraya
2743: South Sudan Bar Association: Lawyers seek a stronger regulatory body
every morning. Well yesterday, South Sudanese lawyers had a symposium on opportunities and challenges of the legal profession in South Sudan. Now, there could be a prospective lawyer who was listening to us and those studying the law, the university and those who want to study the law and become part of the legal profession. Well, this is for you and we also want to understand the state of the legal profession in South Sudan because the law is the law and it has quite a long arm that reaches all of us. Now, in the studio, we have advocate John Conn Kelly and advocate Dang John. Thank you so much for making our time to speak to us today. Welcome to the program. Thank you. Right. So, yesterday, you met with your colleagues to discuss about the challenges and opportunities in your profession. So, what prompted you to have this symposium? What's up with you, advocate John? Thank you very much, Irene Lasso, for hosting us this morning. Taking us to host the symposium yesterday, it was because our South Sudan bar session since inception in 2009, we have a lot of challenges that are facing us. This is why we agreed that to hold these symposiums and then when the bar session was established, our colleagues were less than 50 advocates, but now we have more than 2,200 advocates in the Republic of South Sudan practicing in Juba in the various states of the Republic of South Sudan and then we have a lot of challenges. We want to dedicate them. We want to organize the bar sessions because since the reception, we did not get the opportunities to hold this symposium and similar risk conferences. This is why we held this symposium yesterday to discuss our challenges and then to see the way forward. Okay, so speak about organizing the bar association. Why is it important to reorganize? Because since the inception of the bar session in 2009 and then by then we were practicing under the new Sudan advocacy act of 2003 is one of the new Sudan laws and then it was revealed in 2013 by the current advocacy act and then in 2014, we tried to hold general election of the bar session and then we did not succeed. But this day is there is a general election that is going on in the country and then we want to invite our colleagues because majority of our colleagues, they were not there in 2014 and then when the advocate is was promulgated and assented by the president. So we want to educate them about the history of the bar session, about the function, the structure of the bar session to let them know what are the structure of the bar session and then what are the challenges that are facing us and why we want to move ahead from the direction that we are. Right, yes, advocate, what are some of those challenges? You can just highlight to us that I affected you. Thank you. Thank you, Irene. This is John Conkley. Yes, as you was introducing the program, laws is just a law but it has a long arms that attach each and every one of us. And indeed, why do we want to organize the bar? We want to organize the bar so that we have an institution functioning well that can work as a miraya, right, not your radio but they are like a mirror to reflect each and every one of us being the good governance, being the rule of law and all those and it has been never in place. The challenges where actually coming and a lot of challenges is the fact that working environment where the lawyers worked, when Irene has a problem with somebody and I go to present her in the court and some people took opportunities and start to be intimidating lawyers so that Irene will now remain vulnerable because I'm looking for my 70. It happened in front of the judges, it happened in front of the prosecutors and those does happen simply because we don't have a bar that is strong. So does it affect lawyers only? No, it also affects the client who are looking for justice. Other challenges are the working environment offices that we run. Not everyone has a strong hand to establish a wonderful law firm that is operational and when there is a bar there would be a supporting hand. Other challenges are like some people, not a great bit of law, work has a lawyer but they can work has a problem such as somewhere. The way they do compete here with you guys who are second for a job and the euphemist, we need to empower our colleagues that enter the classes of law finish and are looking for a job somewhere. So those small challenges that I have just said and specifically when coming to our fees, lawyers are backing clients that are negotiating the fees, while our fees are very minimum and we thought lawyers' fees is not knowledgeable. Is it? It is. Okay. Yes. All right. Yes because if you can't knock a chain, the fear of the doctor that you are seeing in the clinic, why would you knock a chain at the fear of the lawyer? You've even gone to five, we cannot negotiate in the supermarket. Exactly. Okay. Thank you so much. I'm coming to you. Thank you John for because we want to entice more lawyers who are studying. What are some of the opportunities that are in South Sudan for those who are looking forward to becoming lawyers? Thank you very much for those who want to become a lawyer. We have advocacy, they can practice as an advocate. After they've gone through the training of one year, they can apply to be judicial assistant at the judiciary of the Republic of South Sudan, they can apply also to be the legal assistant at the Minister of Justice and they can be law lecturers at the University of Java or other parties in visit that they have a school of law and then they can work at any institution that they are eligible to work on that particular institution. In Republic of South Sudan, we have four law schools. Those law schools, they graduate a lot of our colleagues in the country. This is why you have seen the number of the advocate have increased quickly from in 2014, we were in 2006 advocate, but now we are more than 2000 advocate in the Republic of South Sudan and then the working environment as my land colleague Conestated is not good. This is why we want to improve the working environment in the Republic of South Sudan so that we can attract our colleagues to work in the various legal profession in the Republic of South Sudan, such as advocacy, the Minister of Justice, the judiciary and the other legal institution in the Republic of South Sudan. Right, thank you so much and advocate Conestated is what barriers are on the way to accessing legal education and training for aspiring lawyers in the country. Well, one of the barriers that it is applicable for all of us is make sure that you pass your secondary school well. And once you are in a school, don't expect that you will be much ahead just going without fulfilling all the good requirement or the credit hours that are needed for you. However, environment, the academic environment in South Sudan is not that conducive for any one of us. It's not only for a law school student. We do also see that the fact that the school offering laws are less. You are talking about it. Those are the University of Juba at the School of Law. You have College of Law also in Dr. Younger Memorial University of Sign and Technology. You have Law School also in the Stafford University College and there is also Law School in Star International University College. These are four colleges. And of course Law is one of the attractive courses that a million of student want to join. So, there is a need to increase those. Also, the premises of those universities do not provide enough space to accommodate more students. So, that one acts as a barrier. Otherwise, the Republic of South Sudan do not have barriers that say if you are not from there or from here, you cannot enter. No. It does not require a fair degree somewhere in order for you to assess the legal profession. You just have to pass you. You have to pass you to a certain school. So, what can be done to strengthen the legal education or to make the environment conducive? Well, I can say that it is something that has to do with our economic position as a country. When our economy is going well, of course, universities will increase the space because of these four universities to our public universities. I would encourage our colleague from, because I am a lecturer at the University of Cuba, so I can call the other two universities that are private colleagues to double their effort and use their capacities to grow their school because they do not need to drive along with our budgeting that we go through as the public universities. Generally, Irene, I would want to say to the Secretary of the United States, law is a cross-cutting and all of us need to pay attention to it. So, I am happy that Mirai Yevam was doing that for us as a lawyers because our bar organization is important. Right. We are your partners for peace. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Advocate, Dang, as things stand, like you had corn, advocate corn, speak about all the challenges, looking at these challenges in the legal profession from your perspective, what needs to be done fast to improve? What needs to be done? We have an advocate since the bar organization was established. We don't have a bar office. One of the challenges facing us at the moment, as the election is going on, one of the priority will be to establish a bar office that can accommodate all the structures of the bar organization such as like the executive, the central committee, the bar consent. So, they need to sit in a permanent office so that they can operate and then to implement the objective and then the functional competencies that are enumerated in the advocate act and the constitution. This is one of the priority that we to improve the working environment. We need to have a bar office at the head court in Jupa. Also, we have a bar session at the states branches. Also, they need to have their own office to practice because we have a good number of advocates at the state level. As the number of advocates is 2000 and above, we have not less than 150 advocates at the states. We have advocate in board. We have advocate in two-rate. We have advocate in appanile. We have advocate in a wheel. Also, in wau and kwajok, we don't have advocate in unity states and plus rowing administrative area plus b-board administrative area. All these states, they don't have a practicing advocate. Why is that? Because there is no judges. There is no courts and there is no office for prosecutors. Because advocate, they use normal practice where there is a judge and there is a office for prosecutors because these are the arm of the justice system. Because you cannot open an office in Bantu where there is no judge, where there is no prosecutors. This is one of our objective in upcoming election to improve the environment. This is one of the objective of the symposium that was held yesterday is one of the recommendations. Do you have anything else to add? Yeah, I have to add that bar is among the civil societies and bar act as a judicial arm that keeps pushing for the rights of people of a certain country, in that case for Saasudan. So it makes us feel not okay that people in Bantu in unity states in other areas like rowing and people have to go through arm of executive only decisions without being mirrored. And it's one of the things that we would call upon all lawyers, please whatever team you are in, make sure that you go for the polling stations, make sure that we practice our democracy with respect, make sure that we organize our bar, make sure that at the end you vote to bring in a leader that will make bar function for the interests of our people, for our own peaceful existence. Rule of law does not implement itself alone. It needs lawyers to be participant. Right. Thank you. Thank you so much, gentlemen, for making our time to speak to us. Going forward advocate dang, what will make the legal profession in Saasudan quite attractive for the brilliant minds to flourish? Okay, what make the legal profession in Saasudan to be very attractive? We want to improve. One improvement of the environment is one of the things that track the advocate like one day graduated from the universities. We have LTI, which is legal training institute at the Minister of Justice. This institution need to be operationalized to attract or to train the advocate. In Saasudan, we have a legal profession examination council when you graduate from university. You don't have a right to practice. You have to go through this institution to pass this exam. Then after that, it will be eligible to practice as an advocate, legal counsel or a judge in one of these legal institutions. These are one of the things that can make the profession to be very attractive in the Republic of Saasudan. There is other things that can make the environment to be very attractive. We need to train our colleagues to improve their learning so that they can fight for the right of the citizen of the Republic of Saasudan, because we are as an advocate. We have the role to participate in the role of law in the democracy to review the laws in the Republic of Saasudan to educate the citizen about their right to empower the woman, about their right, girls, and children, since the promulgation of the child act, for example, in 2008, we have a child commission. This commission was not established since 2008. It is one of the very important commission need to be established to take care of the children right as Saasudan is a party to some treaties and international conventions related to child rights. These are the work of the advocate. We need to stand for the right of the citizen of the Republic of Saasudan. Our colleagues need to be empowered, need to be educated, so that they can carry out their duties. Thank you. Thank you so much. Just advocate, John, would you like to jump in in just one minute? Yeah, I think one point that is left out to make our profession attractive to the broader mind that are pushing to join law school is the fact that as a lawyer, you are self-employed and once you are self-employed, you earn good earning. So the fact of our legal fee that I say that is non-negotiable, we need to establish a regulation that state what a legal fee should be. And once that money is there, of course, what else do you want to be healthy and to be happy? You need to have some money in your pocket. So that will make it attractive. Opportunities, every commission somewhere being full, whatever it is, it always needs a lawyer. So our work is attractive, you need to join the law school. Thank you so much, advocates John Colin Kelly and Deng John. Thank you so much for your time.