Title of paper:
‘Spousal Sexual Assault in Canada and Ghana: An Equality Analysis of Crimnal Law Reforms’ [with Elizabeth Archampong and Jennifer Koshan]
Abstract:
This paper presents work carried out with the equality effect (http://theequalityeffect.org/), an NGO comprised of lawyers, academics and activists in Canada, Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi, on a project exploring the legal treatment of marital rape in these four countries. Canada is sometimes seen as a model for the reform of the law on marital rape, as the 1983 removal of spousal immunity for sexual assault made it one of the first countries globally to criminalize this particular form of gender based violence. Canada has implemented several other positive legislative changes in the area of sexual violence against women as well, many of those reforms a result of feminist organizing. However, the judicial treatment of marital rape in Canada continues to raise questions about the extent to which women sexually assaulted in spousal relationships receive the equal benefit of the law. In Ghana, reforms to the law of sexual assault in 2007 make it possible for men to be prosecuted for marital rape, but these changes have not fully eliminated discrimination against Ghanaian married women because there is still no direct prohibition of marital rape. The presenters will explore the equality of women in the context of marital rape in each jurisdiction, focusing on issues of consent and the myths and stereotypes underlying marital rape and its legal treatment.