Foetal Rights and the Law

 

To deny a woman her basic rights is to challenge her very humanity." Nelson Mandela.This quote encapsulates the fundamental tension in the discourse on foetal rights and women's reproductive choices, highlighting the essential need to respect and uphold women's autonomy while navigating the complex moral landscape surrounding the rights of the unborn.

The law does not choose between the rights of the mother and the rights of the unborn; it must navigate the complex terrain where life begins and personal autonomy is at stake.

Gender Mainstreaming within Governance, Justice, Law and Order Sector (GJLOS)

Strengthening Gender Mainstreaming within Governance, Justice, Law and Order Sector (GJLOS)

1. Enhance Judicial Capacity:

• Train Judges, Magistrates, Chiefs, and Police: Conduct comprehensive and ongoing training programs on laws relating to women's property rights, including:

• Focus on Case Law: Emphasize High Court decisions confirming women's inheritance and property rights.

• Develop a Training Manual: Create a comprehensive manual for magistrates and customary leaders, clearly outlining case law that establishes the primacy of statute law over discriminatory customary law.

• Monitoring and Evaluation: Implement a system of "spot checks" to monitor court decisions and ensure adherence to the principles outlined in the training.

• Authority: This approach aligns with the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which emphasizes the importance of judicial education and enforcement of women's rights.

2. Improve Access to Justice:

• Disseminate Knowledge:

• Public Awareness Campaigns: Utilize various channels, such as radio plays, pamphlets (like FIDA's "ABC of Property Law"), and community forums, to disseminate information about women's property rights and how to enforce them.

• Market Surveys: Conduct market surveys (as recommended by GJLOS) to assess the effectiveness of these dissemination efforts and identify areas for improvement.

• Reform Legal Framework:

• Prioritize Key Legislation: Focus on reforming critical legislation such as Part IV of the Companies Act, the Chattels Transfer Act, and security law, ensuring they align with international best practices (e.g., Article 9 of the US Uniform Commercial Code, adapted for common law countries like New Zealand).

3. Enhance Financial Inclusion:

• Improve Credit Information Exchange:

• Establish a Credit Reference Bureau: Facilitate the efficient exchange of credit information between financial institutions, particularly between microfinance institutions (MFIs) and banks, to improve access to credit for women-owned businesses.

• Promote Financing Mechanisms:

• Encourage Support from FIs and Development Institutions: Advocate for increased provision of financing mechanisms specifically designed for women-owned businesses, leveraging both local and international financial institutions.

4. Strengthen Gender Mainstreaming within GJLOS:

• Integrate Gender Considerations: Ensure that gender considerations are explicitly integrated into all aspects of the GJLOS reform program. This includes:

• Data Collection and Analysis: Collect and analyze gender-disaggregated data to identify specific challenges faced by women in accessing justice.

• Budget Allocation: Allocate adequate resources for gender-specific interventions within the GJLOS program.

• Monitoring and Evaluation: Establish robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to track the impact of the reforms on women's lives.

1. Data-Driven Decision Making:

• Gender-Disaggregated Data Collection: Systematically collect and analyze data on the impact of the reforms on women and men. This data should include:

• Access to Justice: Track the number of women who access justice in different legal areas, such as property rights, family law, and criminal justice.

• Court Outcomes: Analyze court decisions to identify any gender biases in sentencing, bail decisions, and other judicial outcomes.

• Barriers to Access: Investigate the specific barriers that women face in accessing justice, such as lack of awareness, affordability, and cultural norms.

• Use Data to Inform Policy: Use this data to inform policy decisions, budget allocations, and program design within the GJLOS reforms.

2. Empowering Women's Organizations:

• Increase Funding and Support: Increase funding and provide technical support to women's rights organizations working on issues related to access to justice.

• Partnerships and Collaboration: Foster strong partnerships between government agencies, civil society organizations, and women's groups to ensure that women's voices are heard and their needs are addressed in the reform process.

• Capacity Building: Provide capacity building opportunities for women's organizations on issues such as legal advocacy, community mobilization, and data collection.

3. Addressing Cultural and Social Norms:

• Community-Based Interventions: Implement community-based interventions to address harmful gender norms and stereotypes that hinder women's access to justice. This could include:

• Community dialogues: Facilitate discussions with community members, including traditional leaders, to raise awareness about women's rights and challenge discriminatory norms.

• Sensitization programs: Conduct sensitization programs for community members, including men and boys, on gender equality and women's empowerment.

• Incorporate Traditional Justice Mechanisms: Where appropriate, incorporate traditional justice mechanisms that are more accessible and culturally sensitive to women, while ensuring that these mechanisms respect women's rights.

4. Ensuring Gender-Responsive Service Delivery:

• Train Justice Sector Personnel: Train all justice sector personnel, including police officers, prosecutors, and court staff, on gender-sensitive approaches to service delivery.

• Provide Women-Friendly Services: Create women-friendly spaces within justice institutions, such as separate waiting areas, private interview rooms, and child-care facilities.

• Ensure Confidentiality and Safety: Ensure the confidentiality and safety of women who seek justice, particularly survivors of violence.

5. Long-Term Sustainability:

• Establish Gender Mainstreaming Units: Establish dedicated gender mainstreaming units within the Ministry of Justice and other relevant government agencies to oversee the implementation of gender-responsive policies and programs.

• Regular Reviews and Adjustments: Conduct regular reviews of the GJLOS reforms to assess their impact on women and make necessary adjustments to ensure their effectiveness.

• Promote Gender Equality as a Core Value: Promote gender equality as a core value within the justice sector and throughout society.

By implementing these strategies, the GJLOS reforms can be more effectively strengthened to ensure that they address the specific needs and challenges faced by women in accessing justice.

Gender equality as a discourse is scattered in various legislation and judicial pronouncements. In order to take manities stock of the existence and progress of the rights of women, a law dubbed 'The Recognition of Gender Equality Act' ought to be enacted. Such a law will help the government in setting and reviewing the status and progress on the diverse components of gender disparity including mortality inequality; natality inequality; basic facility inequality; special opportunity inequality; professional inequality; ownership inequality; and household inequality among 132 others.  

That law will thus be useful in making more informed conclusions and actions onthe basis of more accurate status reports. Feminists have strived to advance a philosophy of continued connivance to disadvantage women by legislative, policy and decision making organs including the judiciary. It is that footing that this book recommends that in order to accurately ascertain the status of gender inequality, feminism as an approach ought to be guided by the ideals of good faith, soundness, objectivity and gender harmony.

Theories of Development

MARXIAN THEORY  

• Karl Marx contribution to the theory is unique because he considered not only economic prerequisites for growth but also social consequences 

• He believed that the process of socialism was not gradual or evolutionary as assumed by the orders theory as it was characterized by conflict of inter between classes in the society.

• He saw struggle as an engine of social change and development  as

-class struggle between the capitalist class and the workers.

-The collapse of the capitalist system as the capitalist find investment unprofitable due to the ultimate fall of wages to the subsistence level.

6. According to Marx, every society has a class structure consisting of the propertied and the non-propertied class - the labourers. 

7. The propertied, i.e. the capitalists own the means of production while the workers own nothing but their labour power which has to be sold in exchange for a wage. Wages are used in the purchase of life's necessities so that the level of total consumption. 

8. The process of capitalist growth led to the lowering of wages and to greater substitution of labour for capital. 

9. The displaced workers went up the "industrial reserve army" of the unemployed thereby depressing demand. The process of capitalist growth eventually come to a grinding halt when wages reach the subsistence level of investment 

10. The result is a class struggle in which the capitalist class is defeated and replaced by the idea socialist society in which every individual gives according to his abilities and receives according to his needs. Marx was by all means a utopian philosopher. Although history has proved Marx wrong, he made an important contribution by suggesting that a development process, which neglects the problems of poverty, inequality and unemployment, is doomed to fail.

Weaknesses/critics have referred to him as a prophet of doom for the capitalist system.

1. It ignores real issues  -he’s analysis is based on the theory of surplus  value for which uses absolute rather than real prices.

2. His materialistic interpretation of history is inadequate and one sided  as history is molded by many fax economic factors should be considered.

3. The whole Marxian analysis is built on the theory of surplus value. In the real world we are considered price over value.

4. He pointed out that technological progress leads to unemployment and the strength of the industrial reserve army is an exaggerated view 

5. His view of increasing misery of laborers in capitalist societies is absurd because in reality real wages of workers continue to grow.

6. Marx failed to visualize that technological innovations may lead to capital savings 

7. Marx failed to understand flexibility in capitalism.

 

DEPENDENCY THEORY 

• Developed in 1950 by Director of Commission of Latin America ,Raul Prebisch 

• The dependency theory states that "the less developed countries (LDCs) are dependent on the developed countries (DCs). This dependence is the main cause for the underdevelopment centi the former. Dependence is a conditioning situation in which the economies of one group ountrie conditioned by the development and expansion of others. This means that while first; NPs at countries may advance through self-impulsion, dependent economies can only reflect the expansion of the dominant countries which may have positive or neomina effects on their immediate development. (Dos Santos, 1971).

• According to dependency economists, the whole world is divided between two sets of countries: developed countries (DCs) and less developed countries (LDCs) The former is in the centre (Western Europe, Britain and the USA) and the latter are in the periphery (backward countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The dependent countries have low per capita GNPs and rely heavily on the export of a single commodity for foreign exchange earnings.

• Frank many countries in the peripherytraces the process of development in three ways have I been incorporated into the world economy in three ways since

•  the early days of colonialism.

• as capitalist incorporated into the world economy

• as meta satellites chain as surplus is generated at the center 

• Both DC and LDC are a result of a world capitalist system

• Jhihan has identified dimensions of dependence as 

• Historical and International process

• Foreign capital 

• Technology dependence 

• Trade and unequal exchange 

• Dualism 

Strength of the Dependency theory 

• The dependency thinkers have tended to favour industrialisation and to note the positive aspects of capitalism in raising the productive capacities of dependent economies. However, unlike the modernisation theory they are inward looking  terms of the sources of capital so as to avoid the exploitative nature of interna capital in order to build capacity for self-reliance.

• By advocating for the severing or cutting of the 'umbilical cord' i.e. development connects the poor nations to their supposed masters, the dependency theon drawing attention to the significance of planned development or other alter development approach from the so called modernisation with a view to cementing sustenance and thus building capacity for choice in external matters.

• Other dependency theorists advocate mutual cooperation among LDCs in the form of regional economic cooperation and international commodity agreements. Particular, suggests a new development strategy for peripheral countries based of following: (a) a self-reliant development strategy based on one's own resource: collective self-reliance strategy based on mutual cooperation and economic integrated of LDCs; and "the demand for a New International Economic Order based on transfer of technologies to LDCs, the control of natural resources by LDCs, hi prices for raw materials of LDCs, and access to the markets of DCs for the manufac of LDCs.

• Self-reliant development strategy based on one's resources, the dependency theory was laying the foundation for poor countries to exploit and benefit from their own natural resources. It also drew attention to the significance of a balanced approach to the development which led to the dispersal  development projects to rural areas and enhanced government drive, to mode agriculture.

 

Weaknesses 

1. Oversimplification of Underdevelopment:

• Homogenization of LDCs: The theory assumes all developing countries are at the same stage, ignoring diverse levels of development and internal variations within them. Comparing Brazil and Tanzania highlights this flaw.

• Neglect of Internal Factors: Overemphasis on external exploitation overshadows internal issues like corruption, poor governance, and inefficient resource management.

2. Inaccurate View of Capitalism:

• Capitalism as Sole Culprit: It doesn't acknowledge instances where capitalism has contributed to development in some LDCs. Kenya's example is often cited in this regard.

• Overlooking Internal Dynamics: Focus on external forces neglects the agency of individuals and communities within developing countries.

3. Methodological Limitations:

• Macro Focus: The focus on the global system limits analysis of specific local contexts and internal factors.

• Rigid Assumptions: Assumptions about production roles (raw materials vs. finished goods) don't always hold true in the real world.

• Power Dynamics: The theory may oversimplify the power struggle between nationalist capitalists and compradors.

4. Policy Implications:

• Limited Practical Guidance: The broad focus on the global system makes it difficult to derive specific, actionable policies at the national level.

 

In essence:

Dependency Theory provides a valuable framework for understanding the historical and systemic factors that contribute to underdevelopment. However, its limitations, such as oversimplification, neglect of internal factors, and rigid assumptions, require critical evaluation and a more nuanced approach to analyzing development challenges.