Women's Movements, Plural Legal Systems and the Botswana Constitution : How Reform Happens
Collective action by women's networks has been a strong driver of legislative change in many countries across the world. Women's groups in Botswana have used advocacy tools such as testing the implementation of gender equality principles...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/11/18481696/womens-movements-plural-legal-systems-botswana-constitution-reform-happens http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16924 |
| Summary: | Collective action by women's
networks has been a strong driver of legislative change in
many countries across the world. Women's groups in
Botswana have used advocacy tools such as testing the
implementation of gender equality principles in the national
court system. In 1992, women's legal networks in the
Unity Dow case successfully challenged discriminatory
statutory citizenship laws. This victory triggered
far-reaching reforms of the citizenship law, family law, and
even the Constitution itself. Two decades later, another
successful "test" case, the Mmusi case, has
challenged the customary law practice of favoring male heirs
as contrary to constitutional principles of equality. The
paper explores the role that judges and national courts play
in implementing gender equality principles and upholding
state commitments to the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women. The paper also highlights the
role of governments in taking on the concerns of their
citizens and cementing the principle of equality in national
legal frameworks. The backdrop to this process is a plural
legal system where both customary and statutory laws and
courts exist side by side. How women negotiate their rights
through these multiple systems by coalition building and
using "good practice" examples from other
countries is important to understand from a policy
perspective and how this "bottom-up" approach can
contribute to women's economic empowerment in other
national contexts. |
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