The Government has moved to the National Assembly to reform the country’s Marriage laws to provide both husbands and wives with equal rights. 

The Attorney General Anil Nandlall said under the proposed legislation – the Matrimonial Causes (Amendment) Bill 2024 – the Government hopes to remove existing discriminatory provisions, so as to bring the law into conformity with certain fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution. 

Under the Principal Act, a Court may order that a husband must pay maintenance or alimony to his wife upon the dissolution of their marriage, but the High Court recently found this provision to be discriminatory based on the grounds of sex, gender and equality. 

The Attorney General said the Bill seeks to address this anomaly in a legislation that is over 100 years old. 

“There were many, many rights which women did not have a hundred years ago, that women have now, and as a result, they were certain facilities that men couldn’t enjoy that would be considered offensive now, where you have equality of gender and the right to equal treatment irrespective of gender, race, religion, class, stature, etc. So, in an environment where equal treatment is now a guaranteed fundamental right, you cannot have unequal treatment. And throughout this legislation, women were treated differently from men, and men treated differently from women. And throughout the Act we have now changed that where ever we found this inequality of gender and we have now change the language to ensure that there is gender equality and equal treatment,” the Attorney General explained. 

The Bill also proposes to amend other provisions of the Principal Act, and specific sections in the Summary Jurisdiction (Magistrates) Act, which only provide for maintenance and protection of the property of a wife. 

If passed by the National Assembly, it will also see the removal of any provision relation to restitution of conjugal rights – a concept the Attorney General said is not only outdated but has been abolished in many countries. 

“In our Matrimonial Clauses Act there is something called restoration of conjugal rights. What that means, is that if there is a break in conjugal rights or a breakdown in conjugal, meaning parties living together, and they have a dispute and they become estranged, one of those parties could approach the court and get a court order directing a restoration of those relations. It didn’t matter that the two persons can’t live together anymore, that the marriage has broken down irretrievably and that there is great fracture in the relationship and that there are irreconcilable differences, one party could have gone to the court, in particular the husband to get an order to make the wife come back,” the Attorney General explained. 

He said while such provisions may have been legally, socially and culturally acceptable more than a hundred years ago, it is no longer applicable or acceptable. Minister Nandlall said the laws now provide for a husband to be charged for raping his wife. 

“Currently, a husband can be charged for raping his wife, that didn’t exist a hundred years ago, so, essentially, when a court is directing the restoration of conjugal rights, the court is also authorizing that man to have sexual relationship with that woman, even though the woman may not be consenting. Today, that is rape but that is still within our law,” he explained. 

The Government is hoping to secure the support of the Opposition in passing the Bill, which is seen as long overdue.

The proposed legislation was laid before the National Assembly during its last sitting on July 8. 

Related posts:

Petroleum Activities Bill passed in National Assembly; Opposition proposed amendments ignored Gender Equality Forum calls for introduction of Hate Crime Legislation in Guyana AG Nandlall urges global legislators to ensure more gender parity in their parliaments Wife arrested for offering Policeman $525,000 bribe to drop gun charges against her husband