“You Have a Lot to Answer For”: Human Rights, Matriliny, and the Mediation of Family Conflicts at the Department of Social Welfare in Ghana

Abstract

Scholars have argued that the implementation of legal reforms in African settings has largely failed because of the persistence of norms and values that privilege collective interests over individual rights. With a focus on the work of the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) in a matrilineal Asante town in Ghana, this article reflects on the potential for state institutions to implement a human rights perspective through family dispute resolution processes. In this context, the key factors that influence the work of institutions such as the DSW, which has a human rights mandate, include the long history of family legal contests outside the lineage and the principle of economic separateness in the context of marriage. The effect of these developments is that the opportunity continues to exist for individuals, in this case women, to advocate for their rights as mothers even in a supposedly collective social setting. The evidence supports the position that “culture” is not always the impediment to human rights that it is often made out to be. [legal pluralism, human rights, matriliny, Ghana, marriage]

Women seeking justice: claims-making in lower courts in Benin

“…In Ghana, a woman wanted to prove, in front of witnesses, that she was not responsible for her failed marriage and she sought to clear her name, and that of her family, rather than get her husband in trouble (Salifu 2021: 131). The woman pursued justice in an office of the Department of Social Welfare (DSW), an institution that sought to ‘uphold the rights of women even as they recognize the customary and religious norms articulated by opposing litigants’ (Salifu 2021: 125). The DSW is an example of an institution that is operating in the context of legal pluralism.…”

“…The DSW is an example of an institution that is operating in the context of legal pluralism. As Salifu argues ‘the extent to which a human rights institution such as the DSW (Department of Social Welfare) is able to change gender norms depends on the level of freedom individuals have within a social environment to litigate their personal issues’ (Salifu 2021: 130). By bringing her concerns to the DSW, this woman challenged gender norms and expectations.…”

Becoming a social worker

“…The structure of the organization consists of a national headquarters with regional and district offices across the country. One of the major preoccupations of the district offices is the mediation of family disputes concerning spousal and child support (Salifu, 2021). In addition to these, some of the DSW staff operate in hospitals (hospital welfare), schools, orphanages and correctional institutions.…”

Ask and They Will Listen: Economic Justice, Political Agency, and a Right to Health in Uganda

“…But recent scholarship has sought to upend such assumptions, focusing instead on how customary legal realms can prove to be dynamic and open to new forms of claims‐making, especially by women. Scholars in South Africa, for instance, have argued that despite the perception that customary law provides the means for older men to reproduce patriarchal power structures, customary land rights may represent potential resources for women seeking to assert their rights to land that is overwhelmingly formally owned by men (Claassens and Mnisi 2009; see also Salifu 2021). This emphasis on the “living” nature of customary law reveals that the legal practices perceived as “traditional” and “customary” are continually being reformed for modern conditions, often in ways that blur the binaries that have long constrained our understanding of African cultural perspectives on legal rights and relationships.…”