‘Fast-track passage of law on property rights of spouses’
A private legal practitioner, Mr Dennis Owusu-Appiah, has entreated the government to fast-track the passage and enforcement of the law on matrimonial property and children’s rights.
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He expressed concern that 22 years after the promulgation of the Constitution, the bill on the property rights of spouses was yet to be passed.
Mr Owusu-Appiah was speaking at a seminar organised by the Young Heart Foundation in partnership with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) in Accra last Friday.
The seminar sought to create awareness of gender rights and that of vulnerable groups in society.
Mr Owusu-Appiah said the constitutional provisions provided equal access by spouses to property jointly acquired during their marriage and fairness in the distribution of jointly acquired property when the marriage was dissolved.
He said the passage of the property rights of spouses’ bill into law would ensure equality in property distribution at divorce for all types of marriages in the country.
Women’s plight
Explaining why the seminar was held, the Executive Director of YHF, Mr Norman Amidu, said many women and children in the country had problems that they could not make known.
He said the seminar was, therefore, part of a project that the foundation was carrying out, to make the emotional problems and plight of women and children known.
“I have done a lot of research and interviews on the women’s situation and most of them are facing abuse,” Mr Amidu said.
He said the foundation was committed to educating women on their rights and sensitising them to the need to demand their rights.
Children’s rights
Touching on children’s right, Mr Owusu-Appiah said as of 2006, 513,000 children in the country had no basic education, contending that that was contrary to the Education Act.
The Young Heart Foundation is an NGO established in 2011. Its objective is to support orphans, widows and the less privileged., organiser of the coalition, talking to our reporter Abdul Aziz.