Kampala, Uganda - Uganda's law drafting body, the Law Reform Commission yesterday said, while it was aware of the concerns of the Catholic Church on divorce and separate acquisition of property, being a Catholic does not take away the rights of individuals in a marriage.
"Firstly is breakdown of marriages not happening among Catholics?" the commission asks in a statement released at a press conference yesterday attended by its head Prof. James Kakooza.
The commission also asks what the implications would be of not regulating divorce and distribution of property.
Uganda's law drafting body, the Law Reform Commission yesterday said, while it was aware of the concerns of the Catholic Church on divorce and separate acquisition of property, being a Catholic does not take away the rights of individuals in a marriage.
"Firstly is breakdown of marriages not happening among Catholics?" the commission asks in a statement released at a press conference yesterday attended by its head Prof. James Kakooza.
The commission also asks what the implications would be of not regulating divorce and distribution of property.
'This may result into unfair distribution of property or none at all and may encourage rudimentary acts of revenge and cause even more disharmony in families," it warns. It also asks: "Does being married oust the rights of the parties who want to acquire property separately?"
Over the last 15 years' reform of laws on domestic relations has been torpedoed by opposition from mainly religious groups. The new Bill which consolidates into one document customary, Christian, Hindu and Bahai marriages does not include rules for Muslim marriages which will now be dealt with in a separate law.
At the press conference, Prof. Kakooza also said the commission did not endorse cohabitation as marriage. "We have been receiving endless phone calls from the concerned public," he said, adding that in the course of putting together the Bill, there had been consensus between the government and religious leaders that cohabitation would not be placed in the same category as other forms of marriage, cultural or religious.
"Our interest is the property of the cohabitees," he said, explaining that the rights of individuals in a cohabitating union had to be protected. In a statement, the commission, however, described cohabitation as a "social reality" that will "continue to exist".
It said: "What is being protected are the children and the property acquired during [the] period of cohabitation."
In what appears to be striking a balance with the more conservative tendencies of Ugandan society - the statement said: "Cohabitation should not be trivialised. However unreasonable it appears the parties have chosen to found a family and this creates obligation."
In the Bill, cohabitation is defined as "a man and a woman living as husband and wife" while marriage is defined as a "union between a man and woman for life". Marriages are considered permanent unless dissolved in a legally acceptable manner.