The South Sudan Bar Council has revoked the licenses of 83 advocates, for failing to meet the legal requirements for practicing law in the country including presenting degrees from unrecognized universities.

South Sudan currently has 2,298 registered advocates who were officially recognized by the Bar Council to practice law in the country.

According to Arop Malueth Monoon, the Chairperson of the South Sudan Bar Association, the council vetted and harmonized the Advocate Roll to ensure compliance with the law.

Malueth said some of those whose licenses are were licensed by an illegal body, while others obtained degrees from unrecognized universities.

He added that they initiated an ongoing process for the renewal of advocate licenses to ensure compliance.

“We received the files from the previous administration. We went on to vet the compliance of the members to the requirement of the law,” he said.

Malueth said the Council requires that a practitioner must have at least a Bachelor of Laws from a recognized university and he must be a South Sudanese.

The chairperson of the Bar Association said those who lacked the necessary documents were given one month to provide them.

“The members who are lacking one or two of the requirements, we made remarks against their names, so that they have to provide the missing documents and we gave them one month to do so.”

“We have revoked the licenses of members that were licensed illegally. A member that who will be found to be practicing law after his license is revoked will face legal action. First of all, the members whose licenses were revoked are in total 83 members. Some, for the reason of unrecognized universities, and other, which is the major members, because they were licensed by illegal body.”

According to the law to practice law, an advocate must hold at least a Bachelor of Laws from a recognized university and be a South Sudanese national.