Equal Inheritance Rights Could Positively Impact Health and Economy in Uganda

Rachel C. Loftspring (J.D. Candidate 2008, University of Pennsylvania Law School) has recently published her Comment entitled Inheritance Rights in Uganda: How Equal Inheritance Rights Would Reduce Poverty and Decrease the Spread of HIV/AIDS in Uganda, 29 U. Pa. J. Int’l L. 243.
   

Here is an excerpt from the conclusion to her article:

In Uganda, clearly the culture, through the use of traditional customs, has been a force of oppression for women.*** Those laws that Uganda has promulgated to better the situation of women are either not enforced or not sufficient. As a result, women are left to suffer, often while also battling HIV/AIDS, as victims with little recourse.

But, if women had sufficient inheritance rights, their situation would improve. How to achieve sufficient inheritance rights is the crucial question. The country could commit to enforcing the laws already passed, create new and better laws, or import the UPC as a functional model that ensures that widows (and widowers) receive a fair share of their deceased spouses’ estates. With inheritance rights women would become economically independent and the decision-makers in all aspects of their lives. Such independence, as this Comment has shown, would have great ramifications: it would decrease poverty and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in Uganda.