Africa

Here, Justice Lydia Mugambe held that Mulago National Referral Hospital’s negligence and the resulting disappearance of the couple’s baby amounted to psychological torture for the parents and violated their rights to health and access to information. Specifically, Justice Mugambe held that a woman’s inability to access sufficient antenatal care demonstrates a failure on the part of the State to fulfill its obligations under the right to health.

The Combatting of Domestic Violence Act (the “Act”) prohibits domestic violence, which it broadly defines to include physical abuse, sexual abuse, economic abuse, intimidation, harassment, entering the private residence of the complainant without consent, emotional, verbal or psychological abuse, and any threats of the above. Various types of relationships are also covered, including customary or religious marriages and relationships where the parties are not married.

The Combating of Rape Act (the “Act”) seeks to prevent rape and provides minimum imprisonment sentences for rape. It also abolishes the previous law, which presumed that a boy under the age of 14 was incapable of rape and sexual intercourse. This Act also regulates the granting of bail to perpetrators to further protect the rights of the victim, and provides protection to victims of rape and sexual abuse. Finally, it abolishes the customary rule, common among rural areas, that marriage is a justification for, or a defense to, rape.  

Section 9 of the Constitution provides for the right to equality. Section 9(1) provides that "Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law."  Section 9(3) states that "The State may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, color, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth".

This Act amends the Criminal Procedure Act of 1997 and provides for the further regulation of detention and bail of those who are arrested.  The Act substitutes subsection 11(b) of §60 of the original Act, tightening bail conditions for schedule 5 crimes, which includes rape. The substituted section holds that the court must order an accused to be detained in custody until they are dealt with in accordance with law, unless the accused can offer sufficient evidence to satisfy the court that they should be released in the interests of justice.

This amends the previous law to make the registration of customary marriages optional rather than mandatory. The law also makes optional notification to the state of the dissolution of customary marriages registered under the act. The amendment mandates that a marriage performed under customary law under the act will follow customary intestate succession law granting that the reviewing court or tribunal is satisfied by oral or documentary evidence that the deceased and surviving spouse had been validly married under customary law.

The DVA protects and provides relief for victims of domestic violence. It defines and prohibits domestic violence in the form of physical, emotional, sexual, and economic abuse as well as acts of abuse derived from any cultural or customary practices that discriminate against or degrade women. Examples include, but are not limited to, forced virginity testing, female genital mutilation, pledging women and girls to appease spirits, forced marriage, child marriage, forced wife inheritance or sexual intercourse between fathers-in-law and newly married daughters-in-law.

Valerie Oosterveld,, The Gender Jurisprudence of the Special Court for Sierra Leone: Progress in the Revolutionary United Front Judgments, Western Law Publications. 105. (2011). Originally published in 44 CORNELL INT'L L.J. 1 (2011). Available at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lawpub/105  

The Married Persons Property Act of 2014 permits couples to change their marital property regime (i.e., in or out of community property). The Act applies ex post facto, and any couple married under the old act need only approach the High Court to change their property regime in or out of community of property. Change of property regime can be done only once during a marriage.

Pretty, an eight-year-old girl, was on an errand with her friend Violet, a seven-year-old girl. Along the way the inebriated defendant, Manroe, grabbed both girls, stuffed their mouths with cotton, and had sexual intercourse with both of them against their will. After he completed these acts, he threatened to kill them if they told anyone what transpired. Four days after the crime, Pretty’s mother noticed that Pretty was walking rather awkwardly, and upon inspection, discovered cuts on Pretty’s private parts.