By Elsie Appiah-Osei, GNA
Accra, June 23, GNA – Madam Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe- Ghansah, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Ada, has called for an end to abusive widowhood rites on International Widows’ Day.
She urged Ghana to confront abusive widowhood practices and inheritance abuses, declaring that “the death of a husband must not become the beginning of suffering, humiliation, and poverty for a widow.”
In a statement to Parliament on International Widows’ Day, observed annually on June 23, the lawmaker drew attention to the “numerous challenges” widows faced nationwide, from economic hardship and social exclusion, to degrading rituals and property dispossession.
International Widows’ Day recognised by the United Nation (UN), seeks to highlight the plight of the estimated 258 million widows globally and mobilise action to uphold their rights.
Madam Cudjoe-Ghansah, also the First Deputy Majority Whip, told the House that despite Ghana’s progress on human rights and gender equality, many widows still endured “abusive widowhood rites that violated their fundamental rights and human dignity.
She listed alleged degrading rituals, confinement, forced mourning periods, and accusations of causing their husbands’ deaths as practices that “have no place in a modern democratic society governed by the rule of law.”
A second major concern, she said, was the unlawful deprivation of inheritance rights.
“Mr Speaker, widows and their children, are often evicted from matrimonial homes and denied properties jointly acquired with their late spouses by family members who “exploit their ignorance of the law,” she said.
She said this persisted despite the Intestate Succession Act, 1985 (PNDCL 111) and constitutional protections for surviving spouses and children.
The MP blamed inadequate public awareness and “the reluctance of some communities to abandon customs inconsistent with the laws of Ghana.”
She called on the National Commission for Civic Education, Information Services Department, media, traditional authorities, religious leaders, and civil society to launch “sustained public education campaigns” on property rights, inheritance laws, and legal remedies.
She further urged ministries, departments and agencies to strengthen support through legal aid services for widows fighting dispossession; economic empowerment programmes to tackle poverty and social protection interventions.
“Mr Speaker, access to education and healthcare for widows and their children as well as knowledge of the law remains one of the most effective tools for preventing exploitation and abuse,” she stated.
Commemorating the day, the Ada MP called on Ghanaians to “reaffirm their commitment to justice, equality, and the protection of the vulnerable among society” and to build “a Ghana where widows are protected by law, respected by society, and empowered to live lives of dignity and fulfillment,” she urged.
GNA
Edited by Christabel Addo
Reporter: Elsie Appiah-Osei, GNA
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