Inheritance law in Uganda

Valerie Bennett, Ginger Faulk, Anna Kovina, and Tatjana Eres have recently published their article entitled Inheritance Law in Uganda: The Plight of Widows and Children, 7 Geo. J. Gender & L. 451 (2006).
   

Here is the introduction to their article:
   

To be a widow in Uganda is to be an outcast. Too often, when a woman loses her husband, she is also cast out of her family, forced from her home, stripped of all her property, and separated from her own children. 1 It is not uncommon for relatives to take over a widow’s home and grab all of the property and surrounding land for themselves. Because customary law views a wife as an outsider to her husband’s clan, if she wishes to remain in her home with her children, she may have to submit to being “inherited” by one of her deceased husband’s relatives.
   

The widow’s children suffer gravely as a result of these practices. Following the death of their father, children are frequently taken from their mother and must start a new life with their father’s relatives. Daughters will typically be married off quickly to another clan. As a new wife, the daughter now finds herself an outsider in her husband’s family and unable to return to her own family because they cannot afford to return the “brideprice” they received for her. The cycle of exclusion continues when her own husband dies and she is again left destitute.
   

This report exposes many of the injustices in Uganda’s inheritance law, as well as in the customary and religious laws and traditions that usually govern inheritance in Uganda. The report urges the government of Uganda to end the harmful laws and practices that characterize the country’s current inheritance regime. Part I of this report provides an introduction to the plight of widows and children in Uganda, the background of this report and investigation, and a summary of proposed remedies. Part II describes certain exploitative cultural and religious practices that dominate the inheritance process in Uganda. Part III presents the key areas of inequality in Uganda’s official succession laws. Part IV addresses the government’s duty under international and constitutional law to  draft, implement, and enforce new laws of succession. Part V sets forth proposals for legal reform, and Part VI concludes by emphasizing the urgency of this issue in the face of Uganda’s health and economic obstacles.