NGO holds forum on property rights of spouses

Wa, Nov. 17, GNA - Mrs. Barbara Ayesu, Coordinator of Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA) Ghana, has said women would continue to be discriminated against in the distribution of property when their spouses die if effective laws were not put in place to address these anomalies.

She said women and children who suffered ejection and other forms of persecution when the breadwinner of the family died were often discriminated against when it came to the sharing of properties.

Mrs. Ayesu was speaking at a two-day stakeholders' consultation forum on the Property Rights of Spouses and the Intestate Succession Bills on Monday at Wa. The workshop was organised by LAWA-Ghana and African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA) and sponsored by the German Development Cooperation (GTZ).

She said the 1992 constitution of Ghana recognized the property rights of spouses as a fundamental human right and has therefore, placed the obligation on Parliament under Article 22 to enact legislation to regulate it. With regard to the Intestate Succession law which was passed in 1985, Mrs. Ayesu said the law, after 23 years suffered some difficulties in its implementation.

She said it had even become more apparent due to the increasing importance of the nuclear family. She said it was as a result of some of these anomalies that the Attorney-General's Department prepared the two bills which had already been approved by cabinet and would soon be laid before Parliament after consultations with stakeholders.

Mrs Ayensu said the two bills would ensure that there was fairness and certainty in determining matters that relate to the property rights of spouses and clarity in the Law for effective implementation. Mrs. Cate Bob Milliar, the Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Women, said the bill, when passed into law, would help curb the suffering women go through in their marriages.

"I am happy to emphatically state that this bill would serve both the interest of men and women because it would be applied in the circumstances of death, divorce and cohabitation", she said.

She said they were therefore, calling for inputs into the bill from the stakeholders to enhance its credibility to enable Parliament to perform its constitutional mandate of passing it into a Law.

Mr. Duogu Yakubu, the Wa Municipal Chief Executives, thanked the organizers and urged them to continue educating the women on their fundamental human rights to enable them benefit from their marriages.