Women's groups hail approval of domestic relations bill

Officers from a leading legal support network for women in Uganda have commended the government's recent approval of the controversial Domestic Relations Bill.

Annette Tendo, advocacy officer for FIDA-Uganda, said the bill "addresses a range of issues we have been concerned about for a number of years".

"If enacted it will put an equal footing between men and women in marriage," she told IRIN. "It will also put Uganda in line with its own constitution, which talks a lot about equality between the sexes."

The bill decrees, amongst other issues, that the legal age for marriage be set at 18; that women have an equal right to determine what happens to property owned by the couple; that legal grounds for divorce between the sexes be equal; and that either partner can refuse to have sex on “reasonable grounds”, especially because of fear of disease.

Last August, Human Rights Watch published a report in which it expressed concern over the increase in cases of new infection with HIV in Uganda linked to spousal rape. It called for a radical overhaul in domestic law which would enable women to prosecute their husbands for rape.

The bill was first mooted nearly 17 years ago but has been shelved several times. Cabinet finally approved it last Monday and it now goes to parliament to be debated.