scholarly journals Customary Law, Women's Rights and Traditional Courts in Cameroon

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-356
Author(s):  
Joseph N. Temngah
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Statutory Law

This article highlights the controversy over Women's Rights in Cameroon given that women are regarded as a man's property under customary law. The article points out the position of women's rights under statutory law. It compares both rules without settling for either of them. Both rules are sources of Cameroonian law and are administered concurrently by the courts. Again, this article shows the awareness women have demonstrated by challenging the customary law position which considers a woman as an object. Finally, the article settles for the codification of laws notwithstanding the difficulties involved in this exercise, especially in a bi-jural state like Cameroon.

scholarly journals Perempuan dan Hukum dalam Masyarakat Hukum Adat Lampung Sebatin

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-125
Author(s):  
Zuhraini Zuhraini
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Analysis ◽  
Marriage Law ◽  
Inheritance Law ◽  
Biological Determinism ◽  
Fair Principles

The interpretation of the Qur'an is often disputed. The terms of custom, culture and ideology is not one thing that descends from the sky. It is shaped by humans and socialized from one generation to other. Biological determinism has also reinforced the view. In such situations, the differences, discrimination, and injustice resulting from mistakes in understanding and interpreting the universal doctrine, create injustices against women, including the women’s rights and position in Lampung Sebatin customary law community. This article discusses the rights and position of women in Lampung Sebatin customary law community and the form of injustice for women in the society. The conclusion shows that, firstly, women's rights and position in Lampang Sebatin customary law community are far from fair principles. Not fair either in marriage law or inheritance law. Second, the form of injustice for women in indigenous communities of Lampung Sebatin, from gender analysis is marginalization, penomorduaan and labeling, violence, and excessive workload. 

Legal Pluralism, Customary Law and Women’s Rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1&2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muna B Ndulo
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Societal Needs ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender

This article examines the challenges legal pluralism poses in legal systems, especially in relation to conflicts between customary norms and the Bill of Rights and the need to contextualise customary law in order to resolve the need to adapt it to changing societal needs and values. The article focuses on African customary law, African legal systems and women’s rights because it is a burning issue in Africa and was the subject-matter in several of the cases that came before the South African Constitutional Court during the time Justice Ngcobo was on the Court. Cases involving conflicts between customary law and gender rights are not unique to South Africa. These are issues that have engaged African courts and those elsewhere in the world. In Africa, the coexistence of customary law and received law is as old as colonial rule. Like all other systems of law, customary law has been influenced by various other forces in an ever-changing world. The article focuses on customary law and women’s rights. Justice Ngcobo’s approach to resolving conflicts between customary law and the Bill of Rights in constitutions is instructive and makes a significant contribution to the jurisprudence in this area of the law. In his opinions on customary law, especially in the Bhe case, he implores us to look at the social context in which customary rules originated and, before discarding them, to examine the possibility of developing them to meet the changing needs and circumstances of society.

Women's Movements and Constitution Making after Civil Unrest and Conflict in Africa: The Cases of Kenya and Somalia

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
pp. 78-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aili Mari Tripp
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Women's Movements ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Conflict In Africa ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Constitutional Changes

As numerous conflicts have come to an end in Africa over the past two decades, women's movements have sought to advance a women's rights agenda through peace accords; through constitutional, legislative, and electoral reforms; as well as through the introduction of gender quotas. This article focuses the impact women's movements have had in shaping constitutions after periods of turmoil, particularly in areas of equality, customary law, antidiscrimination, violence against women, quotas, and citizenship rights. It demonstrates how countries that have come out of major civil conflict and violent upheaval in Africa after the mid-1990s—but especially after 2000—have made more constitutional changes with respect to women's rights than other African countries. The second part of the article provides two examples of how women's movements influenced constitutional changes pertaining to gender equality as well as the difficulties they encountered, particularly with respect to the international community.

Do Equality and Non-discrimination Apply to Polygamous African Customary Marriages? A Constitutional and Statutory Analysis of 14 African Commonwealth States

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-116
Author(s):  
Sonya Cotton
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Social Reform ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
State Action ◽  
Pluralistic Societies ◽  
Marriage Laws ◽  
Statutory Regulation

Scholarship on ‘radical decoupling’ and ‘sham constitutionalism’ suggests that constitutional promises do not necessarily translate to state action. African states, dually concerned with affirming African Customary Law (acl) and international standards of human rights, face particular legislative challenges in this regard. This article examines 14 Commonwealth African states’ statutory regulation of polygamy, which epitomizes that apparent dilemma. Using simple indices to code levels of protection, it argues for disjuncture between constitutional and legislative levels of protection of women’s rights in polygamous customary marriages. This calls into question the supremacy of constitutions as a catalyst for social reform and the need for revision to African marriage laws on the basis of equality, cognisant of the position of women in legally pluralistic societies.

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