WOMEN DECRY DOWRY

February 21, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) Women activists have launched a campaign against the payment of bride price.

"We uphold that the practice of bride price is a gross violation of human rights and exposes the victim to violence, abuse as well as numerous health risks and dangers.

The international community has recognised that bride price is a form of slavery, a violation of the fundamental rights of liberty, equality and non-discrimination among others and calls for states to abolish it," the estimated 150 women said in a declaration on Wednesday.

"This is a practice that subordinates women, objectifies them, commercialises marriage and threatens women's physical and mental health.

Bride price is a practice that has outlived its usefulness and should be abolished in the societies where it is practiced," they said at the end of an international conference on bride price at Makerere University.

The three-day consultation event on the reform or abolishment of bride price was organised by Mifumi Project.

They called for the criminalisation of the practice, saying it was a human rights abuse since it demeaned females.

Speaker after speaker had no kinds for the practice.

The Uganda Human Rights Commission chairperson, Margaret Ssekagya, described bride price as a form of abuse of human rights.

"Bride price is increasingly becoming a tool of oppression of women because it makes them become a possession equated to a price," she said.

Ssekagya said the commission would support efforts to reform or abolish it and called for a petition in the Constitutional Court.

"We must fight this dangerous and abusive practice. The Domestic Relations Bill enshrines bride price and wealth. We shall be pioneers of this change. It is a long journey but we shall take on the challenge," former Bugiri RDC and State House legal officer Naava Nabagesera said.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200402230080.html