Page 11 Ending Sex Discrimination in the Law Amend or repeal sex discriminatory laws, and replace them with good practice Key Strategies for Reform In the body of this advocacy report, we have included a sampling of sex discriminatory family laws from around the world - all need urgent amendment or repeal by States. In addition to identifying those laws that should be amended or repealed, the UN Women’s report, Progress of the World’s Women 2019: Families in a Changing World, explores how laws, policies and public action can actually support families, in all their diverse forms, and promote women’s rights.18 In addition some good practice examples include: •• •• The Prevention of Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Act, 2011 in Pakistan prohibits giving a woman in marriage (wanni/swara), marriage to the Quran, forced marriages and depriving women of inheritance.19 Article 19 of Namibia’s20 Constitution states that, “Every person shall be entitled to enjoy, practise, profess, maintain and promote any culture, language, tradition or religion subject to the terms of this Constitution and further subject to the condition that the rights protected by this Article do not impinge upon the rights of others or the national interest.” In addition, Section 1 of the Traditional Authorities Act 25 of 2000, states “‘Customary law’ means the customary law, norms, rules of procedure, traditions and usages of a traditional community in so far as they do not conflict with the Namibian Constitution or with any other written law applicable in Namibia.” The Constitution of South Africa is also considered a “good practice” model in seeking to recognize traditional, religious and customary law into the Constitution while also stating that recognition must be consistent with other provisions of the Constitution, which include non-discrimination on the basis of sex and gender. Implementation, however, remains challenging, as not all customary and religious marriages, for example, are recognised and subject to the constitutional protections. As a result, as the Women’s Legal Centre in South Africa has noted, women can only fall back on religious institutions to deal with their divorce and the distribution of assets which leave many women discriminated against and excluded. EQUALITY NOW – BEIJING+25 The principle of universality of human rights with regard to equality in the family should apply to all groups of women and girls, no matter their religion, custom or tradition. We must come together to push back against harmful laws, customs, and traditions at the heart of patriarchy, to benefit all women and girls and their families, including the most vulnerable and excluded. Governments must amend constitutions that allow for exceptions for sex discriminatory codified, customary, and religious laws as well as reform specific discriminatory family laws and put constitutional guarantees of equality in place. Tactics include: •• Movement building - Momentum is building around the world to launch a Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law: 1) To mobilize international action towards achievement of progressive family law reform around the world and to draw global attention and build global support for the urgent necessity for equality in family law; 2) To bring together civil society actors spearheading campaigns for family law reform at the national level, as well as academics, UN agencies and government allies to create and implement a global campaign to end discrimination against women in family laws; and 3) To strengthen advocacy for reform at the national level through developing knowledge resources and providing technical assistance to share good practices and lessons learnt. •• Supporting women’s organizations, activists and allies in their engagement with religious and traditional leaders and those working on feminist interpretation of religious and customary laws; •• Supporting legal advocacy before UN and other international and regional bodies to influence governments, when they come before them to report, to provide legal equality and non-discrimination in their laws and in practice; •• Supporting strategic litigation to get discriminatory laws overturned.