Advocate Aluel Makuach speaks on Eye Radio/14.09.2023

Legal advocate Aluel Makuach who is based in Juba is calling for the formulation of a Family Law to protect the rights of women in divorce.

Family law is a body of law regulating family relationships, including marriage and divorce, the treatment of children, and related economic matters.

Aluel Makuach, a legal advocate for women says the laws in South Sudan do not grant women their rights after divorce.

Advocate Alual Makuach spoke on Eye Radio’s Under the Tree program today.

“In South Sudan, we do not have family law, even now in courts when there is a divorce case it is referred to the customs of each tribe,

“I see, we need a family law not to be umpired to customs because in the customary law, you find when a woman is divorced, she loses all her rights”.

Advocate Alual stresses the need to enact a common law that applies to all tribes saying the customary laws in the country are unfair to women.

” I call for a law that will organize family affairs through a law that includes all the tribes in South Sudan not according to customary,

She said, “Because there is unfairness in the customary laws but when there is a law for family it will be really good, and everyone will get their rights.”

For her part, Chief Mary Nyithian of the Mangateen Customary Court urges families to minimize divorcing saying as it affects children’s welfare.

“My message to people in South Sudan is to reduce divorce cases because divorce affects children,

“And sometimes children go to the streets because the stepmother will not treat them well so some children end up in the streets,” she said.