Human rights lawyer Amanya Joseph. (Moyo Jacob).

A Human Rights Lawyer has warned South Sudanese men who marry more than one wife against being in conflict with the Maputo Protocol which calls for a one-wife marriage, while encouraging men to seek first wife’s consent if they are to marry a second.

The protocol encourages monogamy as the preferred form of marriage and that the rights of women in marriage and family, including in polygamous marital relationships are promoted and protected.

Amanya Joseph said women have often been deprived of their late husband’s properties in violation of the Maputo Protocol.

He is now encouraging men to seek for their wife’s consent before making any decision to bring in another woman.

“Polygamous marriage has been a practice in most of the communities in South Sudan, and you will find that it is the right of the man to marry as many as he wants so long as he has the wealth,” Amanya said.

He made the statement during a Regional Public Lecture on the protection of women’s rights through domestication and implementation of the Maputo Protocol in the country.

“But if you look at the Maputo Protocol provisions, it speaks against a man marrying many without the consent of the woman.”

“That means the woman has a right to consent whether the husband has to marry many or not and therefore it becomes her right to resist this kind of temptation whereby she has to accept a polygamous marriage, she has the right to divorce the husband.”

“Currently, the Maputo Protocol disagrees with that, and this is where there is going to be a sticky point of disagreement the fact is that, if you bring this case, it will be taken to a customary court that addresses it but considering that the Maputo Protocol has become a legal and binding document.”

Advocate Amaya added that widows should be given the chance to inherit their late husbands’ properties.

“Any case of inheritance now will not be addressed at the customary court but at the statutory court where the statutory court will proclaim what the Maputo Protocol says but not what the customs says.”

On her part, Riya Williams, a Women’s Human Rights and Peace Activist concurred with advocate Joseph.

She however said it is up to a woman to decide whether to stay in polygamous marriage or quit if she is not happy.

“I do not accept polygamy, however, there are women who are in polygamous marriages, are they happy? That’s a question. If they are happy where they are, good for them. If they are not happy, why? Let them leave. Period.”

In February this year, President Salva Kiir signed the Maputo Protocol, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

The Maputo Protocol, which has now been ratified by 50 countries, is founded with the mission to ensure that the rights of girls and women are prioritized by policymakers on the African continent.

It said that every marriage shall be recorded in writing and registered in accordance with national laws, to be legally recognized.

The husband and wife according to the Protocol, shall, by agreement, choose their matrimonial regime and place of residence, and a married woman shall have the right to retain her maiden name, to use it as she pleases, jointly or separately with her husband’s surname.

It further says, a widow shall have the right to an equitable share in the inheritance of the property of her husband and shall have the right to continue to live in the matrimonial house.

In case of remarriage, she shall retain this right if the house belongs to her or she has inherited it.

The Protocol also says, women and men shall have the right to inherit, in equitable shares, their parents’ properties.