Cohabitation and intestate succession: A Human Rights Perspective.
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Date
2010-07
Authors
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Publisher
Kampala International University, School of law.
Abstract
General Comment 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights asks states
to recognize and protect all families but leaves how to do this to state discretion. It is silent
on whether all families must be protected equally in a II circumstances. 0 ften, stales make
normative distinction between unmarried cohabitants and married s pauses s uch that
cohabitants are normally not given the quality of rights and protections guaranteed to married
spouses (Barlow et al, 2005). Whereas some researchers found that this situation
creates disadvantages for cohabitants and argued for equal treatment of cohabitants and
married spouses in all matters of concern to the family, others would like to preserve the
usual strict distinctions between them. My thesis uses Uganda's intestate succession law as
primary data to take a mid-way position in this debate. It proposes a context specific
approach to assessing issues of interest to the family taking into consideration the human
rights implications so as to determine how appropriate it is to distinguish between cohabitants
and married spouses. This suggests that human rights concerns should normally determine
the essence of differential treatment to avoid discrimination against cohabitants.
Description
A research dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law in Partial Fulfillment of the Award of Bachelor of Laws of Kampala International University.
Keywords
Cohabitation, Succession, Human Rights Perspective