FIDA-Ghana organises forum on women’s access to justice

THE International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Ghana, has organised a day’s forum on women’s access to justice.

The forum brought together participants from the Ghana Police Service (GPS), the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), the Judicial Service, the Department of Social Welfare (DSW), the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) coordinators and some assembly members.

Sponsored by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), a West African organisation which promotes democratic values, participants were drawn from three project areas of FIDA-Ghana’s three-year project at Madina, Ga Mashie and Weija. The project is on “Access to justice to empower women, as well as to promote and protect their rights through the provision of legal aid and legal education”.

Over the years, FIDA-Ghana had trained ‘community-based volunteers’ to serve as paralegals in these communities and beyond, who deliver services such as counselling, mediation and legal advice to, especially, women, who are in hard-to-reach areas.

PNDC Law 111

A Human Right Lawyer at FIDA-Ghana, Mrs Irene Aborchie Nyahe, who took the participants through the ‘Intestate Succession Law’, said the law was more humane and structured to give a uniformed application when one’s partner died intestate (without a will).

She said presently under this law, a spouse may not necessarily have to prove that she or he has a hand in the acquisition of properties when a partner dies, but would only have to prove that they have been married.

She said it was also a criminal offence for anyone to sack or eject a spouse and children from a matrimonial home for the distribution of the property.

The law, which she said applied to self-acquired properties only, made it possible for one to enjoy the fruit of his or her labour.

On some of the challenges that women faced in their attempt to access justice, Mrs Nyahe said although legislative reforms had liberalised women’s right to include property ownership, many women were still unable to take advantage of the law to access justice due to a number of barriers.

She enumerated these barriers to include high cost of litigation, long litigation procedures, proximity to court and preference for traditional legal systems which were administered by people who were not formally trained legal practitioners.

Gender and human rights

The Resource Mobilisation Manager of FIDA-Ghana, Ms Sussan Aryeetey, who spoke on human rights and gender, said gender discrimination started from the household where men, women, boys and girls were affected.

She said it was only when people were conscientised to become gender-sensitive that gender-related problems could be solved.

“To effectively promote women’s access to justice, we must focus on men and women’s different roles and circumstances in society, which are shaped by ideological, historical, cultural, religious, economic and political factors”, she said.

She added that an awareness of the gender differences in society was a first step towards addressing and integrating particular concerns of men and women fairly when dispensing justice.

Mrs Aryeetey said the law and justice system affected women differently as women lacked the information and awareness of their rights, mostly due to illiteracy.

Access to justice

Also, financial constraints were major barriers to many women accessing justice, indicating that another factor which affected women was the gender-biased nature of law enforcement agency staff and courts officials.

Giving an overview of the project, a Legal Aid Coordinator, FIDA-Ghana, Ms Noelle Appiah, said the project was aimed at ensuring that women got what was due them in marriages.

She said the objective of the project was to build the capacities of state actors to respond to the violations of the rights of women.

Participants, in separate remarks, indicated that the forum would help them to be able to deal with issues concerning the property and legal rights of spouses in the legal context.

Writer's email: rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh