Public Agenda (Accra)
Ama Achiaa Amankwah
22 August 2008
A large number of cases that are handled by the courts and human rights institutions in Ghana involve intestate succession, despite the existence of Interstate Succession Law, 1985 (PNDC Law 111), which protects spouses.
The law seeks to give a larger share of the estate to the spouse and children of the deceased. However, the implementation of the provisions of the law continues to face stiff resistance.
Customary practices on succession have created legal pluralism and when it comes to the sharing of property, people are still glued to traditional believes, ignoring the Interstate Succession Law, 1985 (PNDC Law 111) which was introduced to protect women and children.
Day in day out mothers and their children are thrown out of their homes by family members upon the death intestate of the spouse. This often results in streetism, with its attendant social problems.
Twenty-three years after the enactment of the Intestate Succession Law, parliament is reviewing the law to provide a uniform law that will be applied throughout the country irrespective of the class of the intestate and the type of marriage contracted.
Participants at a roundtable discussion on the bill organised by the Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPIL) in Accra advocated for an Intestate Succession Law that would give proper protection to the vulnerable, since the existing one was not explicit enough.
The forum was to collate views that would be sent to parliament in a memorandum. The Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal & Parliamentary Affairs Committee Mr. Kofi Ameyaw and Mr. Kojo Armah Vice Chairman of the committee said the review by parliament was timely as the PNDC Law 111 was living in ambiance and not being handled at the law courts.
The Executive Director of CEPIL, Dr. Dominic Ayine said it was part of CEPIL's legislative advocacy programme designed to make an input from its perspective to the bill before parliament.
"CEPIL focuses more on legislations that have a bearing on human rights and we are desirous to contribute because the right to property is a fundamental human rights issue."
He observed that Ghanaians are not used to making wills and even when they do, that culture is not wide spread, therefore most people die intestate, resulting in disagreements.
He described the PNDC Law 111 as quiet revolutionary not because of the government then, but because it ran against the tenets of the country's cultural practices / laws and consequently met a lot of resistance from people.
Dr. Stephen Ayidia of the Department of Social Work of the University of Ghana, stressed that the intestate law does not belong to the Attorney General's department but to the department of human services because it is a humanitarian legislation.
According to Dr. Ayidia, many laws that are passed do not work because they do not take into consideration interest of categories involved. He explained that once a person's pride is protected, obviously the interest of another will be affected and likely to result in resistance.
Therefore, he said it is important that social or humanitarian legislation should focus on who the overall beneficiaries will be and to identify clearly what benefit they could derive and how it can be ensured that the law benefits them and not leave them worse off than if there were no laws.
Ms. Georgette Francois of the West Africa Dispute Resolution Centre urged spouses to endeavour to register their marriages to protect themselves.
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