The International Federation of Women Lawyers of Ghana (FIDA) has appealed to traditional authorities in the Upper East Region to involve experienced women in their decision-making processes for fair access to justice. The Upper East Regional Coordinator of FIDA, Mr. David Atinga, made the call at a durbar of Chiefs held at Vea in the Bongo District. It aimed at sensitizing the communities about negative cultural practices that infringe on the fundamental rights of women and how to deal with the issue. Mr. Atinga explained that the procedure adopted at administering justice and the empanelling of decision makers made it difficult for women to access justice, adding that even if they accessed justice it was most of the time not fair. Mr Atinga urged the traditional authorities to make dowry affordable to enable men and women get married, saying, expensive dowry denies the youth marriage and they end up having children with no fathers to help care for them. He mentioned the rampant seizure of properties of wives by husbands and relatives during divorce as one of the issues affecting women’s rights in the region and reiterated the relevant laws saying spouses shall have equal access to property jointly acquired during marriage. He indicated that another area of concern was that women were generally denied the rights to own family lands either in the paternal or Matrimonial home. “She normally has access to the use of the land but cannot own it even when the husband dies. The family members and relative take control of the land and may share some of it to the deceased man’s male children and not the female ones,” he added. Naba Baba Salifu Aleemyarom, Paramount Chief of the Bongo Traditional Area, pledged their support to eliminate and modify negative cultural practices including widowhood rites, female genital mutilation and elopement. Source: GNA