Law, Culture and Women's Inheritance Rights in ... - Leitner Center

them are men.”). In another interview, one woman expressed disgust at the institution of
polygamy. See Interview with Mrs. Chris Dadzie, CHRAJ, Accra (June 15, 2001) (claiming that
“my skin crawls when I think of polygamy”). Another interviewee characterized polygamy as a
form of violence against women. Interview with Mrs. Y'aa Amekudzi, Director, Center for the
Development of People (“CEDEP”), Kumasi (June 6, 2001).
Although we endorse the language of the Draft Protocol, we assume for the purposes of this
Report that the practice of polygyny will likely continue for the foreseeable future in Ghana.
[FN26]. See, e.g., African Charter, supra note 15, art. 1; CEDAW, supra note 14, arts. 2, 3, 15,
16.
[FN27]. African Charter, supra note 15, art. 1.
[FN28]. Id. art. 25.
[FN29]. CEDAW, supra note 14, art. 5(a).
[FN30]. African Charter, supra note 15, art. 18(3).
[FN31]. CEDAW, supra note 14, art. 16(1)(c).
[FN32]. General Recommendation No. 21 (13th Session, 1994), Equality in marriage and family
relations, PP 34-35, available at http:// www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/recomm.htm
(emphasis added).
[FN33]. Section 19 of the Supreme Court Ordinance, 1876, which established the modern legal
system in Ghana, specified that customary law would apply:
“in causes and matters when the parties thereto are natives of the said colony or territories,
and particularly ... in causes and matters relating to marriage and the tenure and transfer of real
and personal property, and to inheritance and testamentary dispositions ....”
Victor Essien, Sources of Law in Ghana, J. Black Studies 246, 248 (1994).
[FN34]. See id. at 248.
[FN35]. See Christine Dowuona-Hammond, Women and Inheritance in Ghana, in Women and
Law in West Africa: Situational Analysis of Some Key Issues Affecting Women (Akua
Kuenyehia ed., 1998) (noting that “these rules of customary law which govern the distribution of
property upon death were based on age old concepts of marriage, family relationships, and
property rights under customary law”).
[FN36]. Intestate Succession Law, P.N.D.C. L. 111 (1985) (Ghana).
[FN37]. See infra Part II.B.2 (discussing the distribution of property under Law 111).
[FN38]. Kotey & Tsikata, supra note 1, at 219.