June 18, 2007

Women's rights in Africa

There are hundreds of groups in Africa advocating women's rights. But few, if any, have been as effective in alleviating the injustices suffered by women as this small group of lawyers in Uganda. In April, the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA-U) achieved its most significant legal success to date when the nation's Constitutional Court overturned key parts of the adultery law – which allowed married men, but not women, to have an affair. It also scrapped parts of the Succession Act, which gave more rights to husbands than wives when a spouse dies. But more important for many of the lawyers here is the ability to improve the individual lives of the women they advise.

Though Uganda's 1995 constitution has a clause that upholds legal equality for both sexes, previous efforts to amend archaic marriage, divorce, and property laws by the ministry for gender were lackluster and failed. The overturning of the adultery law caused a public uproar over concerns that it would lead to increased promiscuity, and the female genital mutilation campaign has already stirred worries about cultural encroachment.

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