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Côte d'Ivoire: Organizations that assist women in areas related to forced marriage, dowry, spousal abuse and legal recourses for women in situations of forced marriage and spousal abuse

According to a 4 June 1998 AFP report, a bill put forward by the Ministry of the Family and the Promotion of Women which makes genital excision, forced marriage and sexual harassment punishable offences in the Ivory Coast was approved on 3 March 1998 by the Ivorian parliament. The reports also states that

Forced or under aged marriages "whatever the customary, religious or traditional motivation," will be punishable by jail terms of one to five years and fines of between 500,000 and five million CFA francs, (380 and 8,300 dollars).

The report quotes Constance Yai, the head of the Ivorian Women's Rights Association (AIDF), as saying, following the bill's approval, that although the rule of law was beginning to take hold in the Ivory Coast, "the hardest work is yet to come: educating people who conduct these practices and who are for the most part illiterate."

According to excerpts of an August 1998 book entitled  Femmes du Sud: Sources d'information pour le développement,  made available on the Internet, there are at least two women's organizations in the Ivory Coast that address the problems of women who are victims of spousal abuse and have been submitted to forced marriages.

One Abidjan-based organization is the above-mentioned Association Ivoirienne pour la défense des droits de la femme (AIDF) which is involved namely in the fields of women's rights, provides legal assistance and fights sexual mutilation practices. A second Abidjan organization, called Association des femmes juristes de Côte d'Ivoire, is also involved in providing legal assistance to women and in the fight against sexual mutilation practices.

Additional information on organizations that assist women in areas related to forced marriage, dowry, spousal abuse and on legal recourses for women in situations of forced marriage and spousal abuse could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Agence France Presse (AFP). 4 June 1998. "Ivory Coast to Outlaw Excision, Forced Marriage and Sexual Harrassment." (NEXIS)

Femmes du Sud : Sources d'information pour le développement. August 1998. Paris: Ibiscus. [Internet] <www.refer.org> [Accessed : 18 Dec. 1998]

Additional Sources Consulted

One source could not provide the requested information within the scheduled research deadlines.

One source could not be reached within the scheduled research deadlines.

Topics: Violence against women, Forced marriage, SGBV, Women-at-risk, Violence against women,