Judges strike continue unabated, paralyzing the judiciary Moses Legge | June 14, 2017 | 2:25 pmGavel and scales Photo Credit alankent.me
The human rights activist group, Screen of Rights, is urging the government to resolve the grievance of the judges and justices, who have been on strike since April.The striking judges and justices want better working conditions and pay rise. The spokesperson of their committee said they will remain on strike until the government meets their demands.The justices and judges have also called for the removal of the Chief Justice, Chan Madut, who they say has failed to address their demands. The Executive Director of Screen of Rights, Reech Malual, said there is need to ensure that the judiciary is fully functioning.“There is no country in the world where you can have two branches of the Government without the judiciary; there is a need to get back the judiciary in to operation,” Malual said.He told the press that there is a huge backlog of cases piling up across the country as a result of prolonged strike.“If you acquaint yourself now with the situation in prison and the detention sells of the police, police has even started to reject any remands or any detainees because they don’t have places anymore to put them,” he said. President Salva Kiir had formed a fact-finding committee to look into the issue of the judges in May.He pleaded with the judges to give him more time to receive the report of a committee investigating the grievance of the justices and judges. “We judges we are still on open strike until the results of that committee declare for us,” said the Spokesperson of Judges and Justices committee, Geri Raymondo.“What is remaining now is that the committee is going to sit down and compile their report and later on they will submit it to the office President for final actions.” He told Eye Radio that a ministerial committee formed to investigate the grievances of the judges is yet to submit its report to the President. When contacted by Eye Radio this [Tuesday] morning, the Minister of Information, Michael Makuei Lueth, who is also a member of the committee, said the issues behind the strike have been resolved, but he did not give the details. According to the chairman of the justices and judges committee, there are more than 260 members, and 99 percent are taking part in the strike.The absence of judges at work has affected delivery of justice in most parts of the country. A representative of the Civil Society Organization Network in former Lakes State, Manyiel Gumkok earlier told Eye Radio that many police stations in the area are congested as a result of the strike.“There is an increased rate of crime because citizens whose fellow or loved ones have been arrested and no justice to report to, they are taking law into their own hands,” Gumkok said. -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14op7GM7B_mCCk6Qhy1enRGeWMYmrhDs8RuZc30buzHbxhQ%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
