Aqua
04-20-2007, 11:49 AM
(gg)
>KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda scrapped an adultery law
>Thursday that campaigners said discriminated against
>women.
>
>Uganda's Constitutional Court ordered the changes to
>the Penal Code, under which it was legal for a married
>man to have an affair with an unmarried woman but
>against the law for a married woman to have an affair
>with an unmarried man.
>
>"Section 154 of the Penal Code Act which penalizes
>married women on the offence of adultery is
>discriminatory," the Constitutional Court said in its
>ruling.
>
>Women found guilty of the offence had previously faced
>a fine or up to a year in jail.
>
>The ruling came after a legal challenge filed against
>the east African country's attorney general by a group
>of female lawyers.
>
>Their lawyer, Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, said the old rules
>had given cheating husbands a green light to pursue
>single women.
>
>"Discrimination concerning sexual relations amounts to
>cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment contrary to the
>law," he told Reuters after the verdict. "Our success
>today is historic."
>
>The court also scrapped parts of a law that gave men
>more rights than women if their partner died.
>KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda scrapped an adultery law
>Thursday that campaigners said discriminated against
>women.
>
>Uganda's Constitutional Court ordered the changes to
>the Penal Code, under which it was legal for a married
>man to have an affair with an unmarried woman but
>against the law for a married woman to have an affair
>with an unmarried man.
>
>"Section 154 of the Penal Code Act which penalizes
>married women on the offence of adultery is
>discriminatory," the Constitutional Court said in its
>ruling.
>
>Women found guilty of the offence had previously faced
>a fine or up to a year in jail.
>
>The ruling came after a legal challenge filed against
>the east African country's attorney general by a group
>of female lawyers.
>
>Their lawyer, Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, said the old rules
>had given cheating husbands a green light to pursue
>single women.
>
>"Discrimination concerning sexual relations amounts to
>cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment contrary to the
>law," he told Reuters after the verdict. "Our success
>today is historic."
>
>The court also scrapped parts of a law that gave men
>more rights than women if their partner died.