Law makers ignore real life family issues in West Africa

On December 10-12 the Danish Institute for Human Rights supported and participated in a large conference on Family Law in West Africa. The conference took place in Cotonou, capital of Benin, and aimed at taking stock of the application of Benin’s 10 years-old Family Code. It also reflected on the realities of family in light of several countries’ experiences in West Africa such as Mali, Niger and Senegal where research has been conducted on these issues.

Law and realities

Even though Benin’s Family Code is a very fine piece of legislation, the realities on the ground do not reflect in any way the regulation of family relations by civil law. In the absence of a properly functioning civil registration of birth, marriages and death, most of the provisions of the Family Code remain inapplicable in large parts of the country.

“Many of the practitioners present at the conference were adamant about the gap which exists between the letter of the law and what is actually happening in real life. They underlined the difficulties on the ground in terms of civil registration, access to court, situation of unmarried women and children born out of wedlock”, Stéphanie Lagoutte explains.

“The family code permits only monogamy. However, the practice of traditional polygamy is widespread, leaving women and children in a legal limbo. The refusal of the legislators and legal scholars to take a reality that they know very well into account is striking and is not conducive to major improvement in practice.”

Many human rights challenges

The debates were extremely vivid concerning a number of traditional practices such as dowry, repudiation or polygamy. These practices challenge human rights especially in terms of equality between men and women, according to Stéphanie Lagoutte:

“The crux of the matter in many African countries is to strike a balance between acknowledging the practices that the population in its vast majority still follows and the requirements of international and regional human rights law which also applies in these countries”.

The question of homosexual marriages also seemed to preoccupy the conference participants to an extent that is quite new in the region: Very critical questions and comments were presented during each discussion.

“It is the first time that I hear people talk so much about homosexual marriage and homosexuality at large when discussing family law issues here in the region, ” says Monique Alexis who has been working with the Danish Institute’s West Africa projects for 15 years.

“It is yet difficult to tell why the issue is emerging so strongly in the debate among legal elites here in Benin, but it must be followed with great attention”.

The conference in Cotonou was arranged by the UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Democracy and gathered about a hundred participants: scholars and practitioners from Benin as well as scholars from other countries. The Danish Institute for Human Rights’ team of researchers from Denmark, Mali, Niger and Senegal presented their work on Dissolution of Marriage, Legal Pluralism and Women’s Rights in Francophone West Africa.