Women's Law and Grassroots Justice in Uganda

Okumu Wengi

Description

This posthumous publication is a collection of essays some of which are based on the author�s research work while others record her thoughts on issues she regarded as important. The materials, which were written between 1991 and 1996, cover a range of subjects that have been tied together under the theme of women, law and justice in Uganda. They represent the author�s central concerns, interests and views as they developed over the years.

Sujets

• Gender Studies

Informations

• Publié par: LawAfrica Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 29 décembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9789966031860
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

WEEDING THE MILLET FIELD: W OMEN ’ S L AWAND G RASSROOTS J USTICEIN U GANDA

WEEDING THE MILLET FIELD:

W ’ L OMEN S AW AND G J RASSROOTS USTICE IN U GANDA

Jennifer Okumu Wengi

D.Phil (Zimbabwe) LLB (Makerere) Dip Women’s Law (Oslo) Dip in Legal Practice (Law Dev. Centre) Cert in Law & Dev. (Warwick). Lately Senior Principal State Attorney Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Kampala, Uganda

Essays in Women’s Law

Published by LawAfrica Publishing (U) Ltd Office Suite No. 2 Plot 10A, Jinja Road (Opposite NEMA House) P.O. Box 6198 Kampala, Uganda Phone: [phone] Fax: [phone] LawAfrica Publishing (K) Ltd rd Top Plaza, 3 Floor Kindaruma Road (Off Ngong Road) P.O. Box 4260 - 00100 GPO Nairobi, Kenya Wireless: [phone] Cell: [phone] Fax: [phone]

LawAfrica Publishing (T) Ltd th Co-Architecture Building, 7 Floor India/Makunganya Street P.O. Box 38564 Dar-es-Salaam,Tanzania Phone: [phone] Fax: [phone] Email: [e-mail] Website: www.lawafrica.com © Okumu Wengi 2011; LawAfrica ISBN 9966-031-11-2

Copyright subsists in this work. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature without the prior publisher’s written permission. Any unauthorized reproduction of this work will constitute a copyright infringement and render the doer liable under both criminal and civil law.

Application for permission for use of copyright material including permission to reproduce extracts in other published works shall be made to the publishers. Full acknowledgement of the author, publisher and source must be given.

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information published in this work is accurate, the author, the editors, publishers and printers take no responsibility for any loss or damage suffered by any person as a result of reliance upon the information contained herein.

T C ABLE OF ONTENT

Dedication...................................................................................... vii Publisher’s Note ............................................................................. ix Table of Cases ................................................................................ xi Table of Statutes ............................................................................ xiii List of Tables .................................................................................. xiv Terms ............................................................................................ xv

Chapter One

Women, Law and the Tedious Search for Justice in Uganda -An Introduction .................................................

Chapter Two

1

Implementing the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in Uganda .... 19

Chapter Three

Policy Considerations within Birth Law: Experiences Form the North and the South....................... 35

Chapter Four

Women’s Property Rights in Dissolution of Marriage and widowhood: Issues in the Ugandan Laws ..................... 43

Chapter Five

Dispossession and Management of Common Property: Women and Inheritance in East Africa ............................... 101

Chapter Six

The Legal Position of Women in Paid Employment in Uganda... 119

vi

Jennifer Okumu Wengi Women’s Law and Grassroots Justice in Uganda

Chapter Seven

Women and Development in Africa - Issues or Strategies ........... 135

Chapter Eight

Socio Legal Aspects of Structural Adjustment Programmes in Uganda: A 1991 View ..................................................... 141

Chapter Nine

Casting a stone into the Bush: Structural Adjustment Programmes and the Family in Uganda - A case study ............................ 155

Chapter Ten

Feminist Perspectives in Law:The interests of the Child in Custody ............................................................................. 209

Chapter Eleven

From Women to the their offspring and their own interests: Searching for a child centered adoption Law and Practice in Uganda .......................................................................... 221

Chapter Twelve

Women’s Law Report Richard Irumba v Florence Irumba......... 255 References.................................................................................... 265 Index............................................................................................. 279

D EDICATION

This book is dedicated: To my daughter, Paula Tusiime Okumu (13); sons, Julius Okumu (15) and Antony Okumu Wengi (17)

You will look, find me nowhere; call out but hear no answer; yet I am everywhere and all the answers are there!

(A wife, a mother far, far away.)

F E P ’ N IRST DITION UBLISHER S OTE

This posthumous publication is a collection of essays some of which are based on the author’s research work while others record her thoughts on issues she regarded as important.The idea to publish these works was that of the author herself although the time for publication would have been different. The materials, which were written between 1991 and 1996, cover a range of subjects that have been tied together under the theme of women, law and justice in Uganda. They represent the author’s central concerns, interests and views as they developed over the years.

The publication serves to memorialise her life as a humble woman who found herself playing multiple feminine roles in real life and in scholarship. As a law and policy researcher and jurist, the author, who shied from publicity, collaborated with several people and organisations in Eastern and Southern Africa, Europe and the USA. This collaboration is only partly reflected in the collection of papers in this book. Mention must be made of NORAD, The Institute of Women’s Law, University of Oslo, Women’s Law Programme University of Zimbabwe, The Ford Foundation, IWRAW; the Uganda National Union of Researchers and Research Users (NURRU) and Women and Law in East Africa (WLEA) both of which she co-founded.The people whom she worked with include a growing community of researchers on down to earth questions in society. It is the spirit of determination, consultation, courage and humility that enabled the author to leave behind this collection as an unintended contribution to the discussion of women and social justice on the ground. It is hoped that the materials will be of some interest even to the idle reader and the brutal critic, both of whom the deceased author valued. April 1997