Reagan Hinton† | 4 Regent J. Glob. Just. & Pub. Pol. 105

INTRODUCTION

Adroa, a 30 year-old woman, lives in a rural village in Northern Uganda with her three children and long-term boyfriend, who she refers to as her husband. People in her village describe her as kind and full of laughter. She makes barely enough to feed her family by selling food at the local market, and her boyfriend finds work, when he can, driving his small motorcycle (referred to locally as a bodaboda), transporting people from place to place. The average person passing Adroa’s smiling face on the orange dirt road outside her village would never know that Adroa lives in a home where she is constantly abused by her boyfriend. From being violently raped when her boyfriend comes home drunk to being beaten when she disagrees with him, she has learned to suffer through the abuse with a smile on her face just like her mother and grandmother did before her. When asked why she does not report such abuse, she responds, “What am I to report? My mother, her mother, and my grandmother’s mother all lived the same type of life. We endure or we risk losing our homes, families, and children. I pray he does not kill me, but I do not have much choice.” Adroa will likely never report the abuse she has suffered at the hands of her boyfriend.1

Abenaa is a 26 year-old woman living in the Ashanti region of Kumasi, Ghana, with her three children and husband. She works as a seamstress and provides approximately half of the family’s income. Her husband finds work building when he can. Abenaa loves ice cream and spending time with her children. She is well-known in her community and sings at church on Sunday mornings. However, Abenaa harbors a similar secret. She, like Adroa in Uganda, suffers physical and mental abuse at the hands of her husband. Her husband likes to drink and will beat her when they disagree. Though she does not claim to have been raped by her husband, she does admit to being abused. Like Adroa, she lives in a small community where wives stay with their husbands for life despite the husband’s abuse or infidelity. However, unlike Adroa, Abenaa was told about Ghana’s Domestic Violence Victims’ Support Unit (DOVVSU). She filed a report with DOVVSU, which investigated her case of abuse. Thanks to the investigation, evidence was provided to Abenaa’s attorney and her case against her abusive husband has been filed with the court. Though awaiting trial, Abenaa no longer lives with her husband and has moved to the city of Kumasi with her children, where she works and finds support through her new church.2

Nelson Mandela stated, “[F]reedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression.”3 Domestic violence constitutes a form of discrimination and oppression in Africa, especially in Ghana and Uganda.4 Ghanaian and Ugandan women live with an inordinately high risk of being a victim of domestic violence due to the Ghanaian and Ugandan custom of treating a wife as property.5 However, both Ghana and Uganda are known for their relatively advanced legal systems on the continent of Africa. 6 Despite having advanced legal systems and having passed similar laws against domestic violence, the response in the two nations has been drastically different.7 In that vein, both countries passed a Domestic Violence Act – Ghana in 2007 and Uganda in 2010.8 However, the courts in Ghana have prosecuted many more cases in the past nine years using Ghana’s Domestic Violence Act than Uganda, which seems to have only prosecuted one case using the Domestic Violence Act in the past six years.9

This Note seeks to differentiate between the two Domestic Violence Acts and governmental changes that followed from the passage of these Acts to determine why Ghana has done a greater job implementing the Act than Uganda. Section I introduces the topic of domestic violence by telling the stories of women living in Uganda and Ghana. Section II will provide an overview of domestic violence, including the history of domestic violence in Ghana and Uganda. Section III examines the Domestic Violence Acts of both Ghana and Uganda and other relevant law from each country. Section IV discusses the hurdles to defeating domestic violence in Africa. Section V then compares the tactics taken in each country against domestic violence and makes recommendations for improvement in Uganda’s approach to defeating domestic violence.

I. OVERVIEW OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

No typical victim of domestic violence exists, as victims come from all ages, ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations. However, most domestic violence occurs due to the power inequality in a relationship between men and women; thus, women tend to be the victims.10 Domestic violence has been defined by the United States Department of Justice as “a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner.”11 Physical or sexual abuse tends to be the most common form of domestic violence and includes “hitting”, “slapping”, “biting”, “denying a partner medical care”, “forcing . . . drug[s] . . . [on a partner]”, “marital  rape”, “treating [a partner] in a sexually demeaning manner”, and forcing any sexual act on a partner without consent.12 However, domestic violence includes more than just causing harm physically or coercing someone to commit a sexual act through the threat of physical harm. Domestic violence also includes both economic abuse through the deprivation of economic or financial resources and emotional, verbal, and psychological abuse through a pattern of degrading or humiliating conduct towards a victim using insults, name-calling, threats, possessiveness, or abuse of a minor. 13 “Domestic violence can [also] result in physical injury, psychological [abuse, [or] . . . even death]”.14

Victims of domestic violence suffer from emotional trauma at the hands of the perpetrator.15 Victims may experience an array of emotions both during and following the relationship with their offender.16 Some of those emotions include the following: isolation, depression, helplessness, wanting to escape the relationship, embarrassment, emotional withdrawal, aggressiveness, financial dependence on the abuser, shame, suicidal thoughts, alcohol abuse, religious reasons for staying in the relationship, fear of no support if they leave, and/or distrust of law enforcement or the court systems.17 Even if a victim is able to escape the relationship, victims often must live with long-lasting effects on their health, including physical problems, psychological damage, negative views of other relationships, and inability to support themselves and their families.18

† Mary Elizabeth “Reagan” Hinton received her J.D. from Regent University School of Law in 2017.

1 Interview with “Adroa” in Northern Uganda (Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the subjects of this story).

2 Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the subjects of this story. Interview with “Abenaa” in Kumasi, Ghana (Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the subjects of this story).

3 Nelson Mandela, President of S. Afr., State of the Nation Address (May 24, 1994) (transcript available at Nelson Mandela Found.: O’Malley Archives, https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv03370/05lv03427.htm).

4 Takyiwaa Manuh, African Women and Domestic Violence, OPENDEMOCRACY (Nov. 26, 2007), https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/african-women-and-domestic-violence.

5 Gender Studies & Human Rights Documentation Center., Facts on Violence Against Women in Ghana (Mar. 2011), http://gendercentreghana.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/04/Facts-on-Violence-gainst-Women-mar-2011.pdf; Human Rights Watch, Just Die Quietly: Domestic Violence and Women’s Vulnerability to HIV in Uganda (Aug. 2003), https://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/uganda0803/uganda0803full.pdf [hereinafter Just Die Quietly].

6 See Asante Fordjour, What is Wrong with Ghana’s Legal System?, JUSTICEGHANA, http://justiceghana.com/blog/law-justice/what-is-wrong-with-ghanas-legal-system/ (last visited Sept. 30, 2017); Brenda Mahoro Updated by Lydia Matte, UPDATE: Uganda’s Legal System and Legal Sector, N.Y.U. L. GLOBAL: GLOBALEX (Oct. 2016), http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Uganda1.html.

7 See infra Part IV.

8 See generally Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ghana: Domestic violence, including protection, services and recourse available to victims, GHA103468.E (June 10, 2010), https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2014/09/25/GHA103468.E.pdf [hereinafter Immig. & Refugee Bd. of Can., Ghana]; Domestic Violence Act, 2010 (Uganda).

9 See generally Uganda v. Kamuhanda, Uganda Legal Information Institute (ULII), (HCT-01-CR-SC-0024 of 2012) [2014] UGHCCRD 21 (Feb. 13, 2014) (discussing the newly recognized precedent under the Domestic Violence Act of 2010).

10 Strengthening Health System Responses to Gender-based Violence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Defining Gender-Based Violence, HEALTH-GENDER VIOLENCE, http://www.health-genderviolence.org/training-programme-for-health-care-providers/factson-gbv/defining-gender-based-violence/21 (last visited Sept. 22, 2017) [hereinafter Strengthening Health System].

11 Domestic Violence: What is Domestic Violence?, DEP’T JUST.: OFF. ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, https://www.justice.gov/ovw/domestic-violence (last updated June 16, 2017) [hereinafter DEP’T JUST.: OFF. ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN].

12 Id.

13 Id.

14 Learn More: What is Domestic Violence?, NAT’L COAL. AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (NCADV), https://ncadv.org/learn-more (last visited Sept. 22, 2017). 15 Michael O. Schroeder, The Psychological Impact of Victim-Blaming – and How to Stop It, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REP. (Apr. 19, 2016, 11:20 AM), https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/2016-04-19/the-psychological-impact-of-victimblaming-and-how-to-stop-it.

16 The 4 Stages of Battered Woman’s Syndrome, LAWS, http://marriage.laws.com/domestic-violence/battered-person-syndrome/stages-of-batteredwomens-syndrome/stages-of-battered-womans-syndrome (last visited Sept. 22, 2017).

17 See Emotional and Physical Reactions to Violence and Abuse, OUR BODIES OURSELVES (Mar. 14, 2005), http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/emotional-andphysical-reactions-to-violence-and-abuse/; Why do Abuse Victims Stay?, SUDBURYWAYLAND-LINCOLN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ROUNDTABLE, http://www.domesticviolenceroundtable.org/abuse-victims-stay.html (last visited Sept. 23, 2017).

18 See Samantha Gluck, Effects of Domestic Violence, Domestic Abuse (On Women and Children), HEALTHY PLACE, https://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/domestic-violence/effectsof-domestic-violence-domestic-abuse-on-women-and-children/ (last updated May 26, 2016).