Majority Leader and MP for Suame, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has underscored the need for Parliament to pass the Spousal Property Right Bill before the eighth parliament is dissolved.
The law seeks to regulate how property of spouses must be shared in situations of divorce or separation and even during co-habitation.
During a round table discussion with the core leadership of Parliament and the Queen Mothers Association of Ghana last Thursday, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who is also the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs said the enactment of the law would bring a close to the litany of acrimony that has come with divorce.
“It appears the blame for non-passage of the Property Rights of Spouses Bill has been rightly laid on the doorstep of Parliament because the bill has been laid twice, referred to the committee and allowed to lapse.
“It is crucial for Parliament to enact into law an act that directs the distribution of spousal property among spouses going through divorce and separation.
“At the end of the eighth parliament, among the many things we will be doing in the pending last session should be the passage of the Spousal Property Right Bill, The Affirmative Action Bill and the Intestate Succession Bill,” the Majority Leader said.
The engagement, organised by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and on the theme “Revisiting the Property Rights of Spouses Bill of Ghana”, brought together the leadership of Parliament and the queen mothers to discuss the challenges stalling the passage of the bill.
Article 22(2) of the 1992 Constitution, the Suame MP said enjoins Parliament to ensure the protection of spousal rights; a reason he said members must not relent in seeing the bill passed.
He said per the 2021 Housing and Population Census, out of 8,366,466 Ghanaian marriages, 950,000 were divorced, a grim statistics which he said demanded enhanced effort to protect the vulnerable in marriage.
The Member of Parliament for Asawase, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, said the bill must take into consideration the cultural, ethnic, and religious differences to ensure that it met the interests of all.
“We need to have a bill that will be able to, for example, regulate marriages because of the way we are intermarrying.
“But if you want to assume that we want to do it one-size-fits-all, the bill will continue to have the kinds of challenges it is facing,” he advised.
President of the Queen Mothers Association of Ghana, Nana Otubea II, expressed worry over the delay in the passage of the bill and shared harrowing stories of how in some cases women had been “thrown out” of their marital homes following the demise of their husbands.
In her view, the bill, if passed, would bring relief to women especially, and provide clarity on how what couples toiled for should be shared.
The bill has elapsed two parliaments, the fifth and sixth parliaments and is yet to be relaid before the House.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
