2020-08-25

West Bank

West Bank / position paper

MUSAWA Demands that the Bar Association Address Serious Problems with the Practicing Exam

His Excellency the President of the Palestinian Bar Association, Adv. Jawad Obeidat, 

The Members of the Palestinian Bar Association’s Council, 

Subject: MUSAWA’s Monitoring Report on the Written Exam for Trainee Lawyers 2020

Further to the letter sent by your distinguished association, containing an invitation to take part in overseeing the procedures of the trainee lawyers' written exam of 2020, which was held on 23/8/2020, between 12:20 pm – 3:20 pm, at the buildings of the law, engineering, administrative and financial studies faculties, and each of the students’ affairs and admission buildings of the Arab American University in Jenin, MUSAWA – The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, delegated a team to monitor the mentioned exam, headed by Ad. Shorouq Abu Qare’, while its membership was shared among three members, namely: Adv. Oday Shaker, Adv. Mohammad Thiab, and Adv. Mohammad Shqeiqat. Noting that the MUSAWA was the only Civil Society Institution that took part in monitoring this exam and that its team has monitored the examination procedures from the beginning to the end.

The team members applauded the observers and examinees’ commitment to some health safety measures, as they were wearing masks, although some of them were not wearing them properly, promoted social distancing, as every hall had only 14 examinees, however, not all of the observers and examinees were committed to wearing gloves. 

Although the examinees were put into 70 halls, the general atmosphere was not disciplined, thus, MUSAWA had a list of observations, including:  

1. In some halls, questions and answers continued to be exchanged throughout the exam between some examinees and observers.
2. In some halls, the observers tended to answer the questions raised by the examinees with yes or no. 
3. One of the halls had seven examinees and six observing members, while the other halls had seven examinees observed by one observing member.
4. One of the halls at the faculty of administrative and financial studies had 7 examinees and 4 observers, who were smoking inside the hall at the same time, noting that smoking is prohibited inside the exam halls and that the air conditioner in that hall was broken.
5. Some official observing members tended to gather and chat outside the exams’ halls and exchange the exam answers loudly. 
6. MUSAWA’s observing member visited one hall, where he found only one official member, and when asked whether he is the only member responsible for observing the hall, he answered that the other three members went out looking for the air conditioner remote.
7. Some official observing members exchanged their positions without consulting the halls’ directors, as MUSAWA’s observing team visited a couple of halls and found out that the observing members present in those halls were registered in other halls, yet they left their positions and were caught helping some of the examinees and individually answering their question with yes and no, noting that at the time they were asked to sign the hall record, they returned to their halls, where their names are registered.   
8. The team observed two cheating attempts by two examinees, who are relatives of the observers, at the Faculty of Law, but they were immediately addressed.
9. MUSAWA’s monitoring team noted that the number of the observing team formed by the Bas’s Accusation is half the number of the examinees and that not all of them are qualified and aware of the basics of examination supervision.

We thank you for inviting us to participate in the supervision of the exam, hoping that you take our observations seriously and to consider them in the future, and to take the appropriate legal action regarding the serious irregularities that marred the examination, which might affect the professionalism, integrity, and fairness of the examination.

With All Due Respect,

Issued on 25/8/2020

The head of MUSAWA’s Monitoring Team

The Legal Awareness & Training Officer

Adv. Shurooq Abu-Qare'