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Women lawyers force big rights gains in Uganda
This spring, a small group of lawyers helped overturn laws that gave men more rights than women.
By Alexis Okeowo | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitorfrom the June 14, 2007 edition
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Kampala, Uganda - – In the small, dusty waiting lounge of a law office in Uganda's capital, Kampala, a cluster of women sits patiently.
Some grip stacks of paperwork – about divorce, child custody, and wills – that they don't understand while they wait for free legal advice.
There are hundreds of groups in Africa advocating women's rights. But few, if any, have been as effective in alleviating the injustices suffered by women as this small group of lawyers in Uganda.
In April, the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA-U) achieved its most significant legal success to date when the nation's Constitutional Court overturned key parts of the adultery law – which allowed married men, but not women, to have an affair. It also scrapped parts of the Succession Act, which gave more rights to husbands than wives when a spouse dies. But more important for many of the lawyers here is the ability to improve the individual lives of the women they advise.
"I came here initially just to have a place to practice, and now I've stayed because of the way we are helping women succeed in getting their rights," says Faith Namono, who has worked as a FIDA-U lawyer for two years.
Helping women help themselves
Women come in a constant stream from the time the office opens to the time it closes. Cases are handled for no fee, on a first-come, first-serve basis.
"They're just people who need help at the end of the day," says Victoria Kirunda, who has been a lawyer with FIDA-U for over a year.
The majority of the cases that the team sees involve marriage benefits, or the lack thereof. Women who have been living with common-law husbands for several years often end up having to support children without any financial help after the arrangement ends.
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