Gender equality advocates from 20 African countries have launched a network to push for a review of family laws.
The Africa Family Law Network was unveiled last Thursday at Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi, after a three-day conference discussing challenges women and girls faced in the continent, especially in regard to inheritance, child marriage, and female genital mutilation.
The advocates said the network would solidify efforts made toward eliminating repressive family laws in the continent.
“This network has been designed to galvanise our energies around the need to adopt and implement family laws that promote gender equality and women’s rights in Africa,” said Equality Now senior legal advisor, Esther Waweru during the press conference.
Human rights
The conference was jointly organised by Musawah, a Malaysia-based global movement advocating for equality in the Muslim community and Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA), a regional network for civil societies with head office in Uganda.
They also partnered with Equality Now, an international human rights organisation, which has Africa regional office in Nairobi and African Women’s Development, and Communication Network, a pan-African feminist network led from Nairobi office.
“We believe that without real equality and urgent reform of discriminatory laws and practices, women will continue to bear the consequences both in their private and public lives,” stated Musawah co-director, Zharin Zhafrael.
Husband’s property
Malawi Human Rights Resource Centre Executive Director Emma Kaliya, said they envision an African continent where family laws and practices guarantee equality.
She said in Angola, Côte d’ Ivoire, Egypt and Nigeria women and girls are prohibited from inheriting their deceased husband’s property or that of their parents.
Similar restrictive laws are applied in South Sudan, Sudan and Gambia, she said.
As a redress measure, they called on African countries to ratify, domesticate and implement the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights without any reservation.
“Enact and enforce family laws and practices that abide by international human rights standards including Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol without reservations,” added SIHA regional projects coordinator Laureen Karayi.
They also called on religious and traditional leaders to protect, promote and respect the rights of women and girls. BY DAILY NATION