Widowhood a Form of Slavery in Conflict Afflicted Countries with a Case Study of South Sudan

Auteur : Millennia2025

Source : Forum for Community Change and Development (FOFCOD) and Widows for Peace through Democracy

Many widows  in South Sudan, as in many countries in Africa, have experienced years of poverty and struggle and the traditional standing of widows in the community, largely based on age and wisdom, is being eroded with the continual need which many people in society face to make ends meet . The situation of older women is further exacerbated by traditional customary practices that may remove their right to inherit, their lack of knowledge of their legal rights and of where to get information, and the burden of caring for orphaned grandchildren as a result of the HIV AIDS pandemic which is a consequence of widow inheritance. As a result, widowhood and inheritance is a critical issue for women in South Sudan.  In South Sudan, traditions, custom, and interpretation of religions, turns widows into chattels, part of the dead husband's estate, and therefore they are in practice deprived of all their fundamental human rights. Left without rights to inheritance, land and property ownership, often illiterate, they are the most exploited of all women and the poorest of the poor.  They are thus vulnerable to economic and sexual exploitation at the hands of their relatives, usually the dead husband's family. The extreme poverty and lack of rights experienced by widows often forces these women to “sell” their children into slavery for exploitation in labor including sex work.

 => Direct link to the 66 pages report:
      http://www.wunrn.com/pdf/widows_sudan.pdf

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Back/Retour => Via Millennia 2015