In 2001, the government of Togo established an interministerial commission to assess the extent to which women’s rights were being respected in the country. The commission conducted a national survey and is expected to put forward amendments to the Personal and Family Code.
The condition of women in Togo has improved since the early 2000s, but progress has been stalled by traditional constraints and by the fact that Togo remains one of the poorest countries in the region. For many years, it was under a dictatorial regime that seriously violated the human rights of all citizens. The situation has changed for the better since a new president was elected in 2005.
Women in Togo face severe discrimination within the family context. By law, the minimum age for marriage is 17 years for women and 20 years for men, and both spouses must give their free consent. This law is often ignored in rural areas, where customary early marriage before the age of 17 years is still common and sometimes forced (such marriages are not recognised by the law). A 2004 United Nations report estimated that 20 per cent of girls between 15 and 19 years of age were married, divorced or widowed.
Polygamy is legal and widely practised in Togo: just under half of Togolese women are in such unions. The practice is more common in rural areas than in towns, and the incidence is linked to level of education: half of illiterate women are in polygamous unions, but the proportion falls to one-third among women who have received secondary education. On a national level, the numbers have been falling in recent years.
According to Togo’s Personal and Family Code, parents share parental authority and have equal rights and obligations in relation to raising their children. In practice, tradition dictates that husbands are the heads of families and the sole holders of parental authority. This gives them the authority to make decisions without asking their wives’ opinion or consent.
The Personal and Family Code states that Togolese women can file for divorce under the same conditions as men, but serious discrimination prevails. In urban areas, legal marriages are terminated in court. Divorced mothers maintain temporary custody of their children up to the age of seven, at which time the courts may award final custody to either parent, according to the children’s best interests. In rural areas where customary marriages dominate, repudiation is more common than divorce. Repudiated women lose custody of their children and are forced to return to their parents’ home, leaving all their possessions behind.
Togolese custom is very unfavourable to women in the matter of inheritance. Women are not entitled to inherit from their husbands or fathers, but can hold property in usufruct. Widows can inherit property only if their husbands explicitly renounced customary law while still alive.
Women’s physical integrity is not sufficiently protected in Togo and violence against women is a serious problem. To date, there is no specific legislation to address domestic violence. Reliable data is unavailable, but it seems that a significant percentage of Togolese women have been beaten by their husbands. Most women are unaware of the legal mechanisms available to protect them and the police rarely intervene in domestic matters.
Rape is punishable by between five and ten years in prison, but spousal rape is not legally recognised. As Togolese society attaches a strong stigma to rape, victims seldom press charges. Sexual harassment has been prohibited by a presidential decree, but is still frequent in the workplace: victims rarely report it and perpetrators usually go unpunished. Widows in Togo are obliged to remain barefoot, a ritual that borders on violence.
In 1998, the government passed a law banning female genital mutilation (FGM), but the practice still occurs within a few ethnic groups. All persons who perform FGM face punishments of between two months and five years imprisonment and a minimum fine of CFA 100 000 (USD 195). Anyone who witnesses FGM and does not alert the authorities can be convicted as an accessory. Various associations and NGOs are using education and training programmes to combat the practice.
There is no evidence to suggest that Togo is a country of concern in relation to missing women.
Women in Togo face heavy discrimination in regard to ownership rights. Generally, women do not have access to land: married women are entitled to inherit only on a usufruct basis. In the event of repudiation or divorce, women may be left in a precarious situation without any means of cultivating food crops.
Women’s access to property other than land depends on the system under which they were married. Civil law provides for the division of property, and women can therefore own and manage their possessions independently. Under the more common community of property regime, husbands are the legal administrators of the couple’s property, although they cannot sell possessions without their wives’ consent.
In principle, women and men have the same access to bank loans, but women typically earn lower wages and are often unable to provide the guarantees requested by banks. Moreover, women married under the community of property regime are prohibited from providing such guarantees without their husbands’ consent.
Several restrictions undermine the civil liberties of women in Togo. By law, married women must obtain their husbands’ consent to apply for a passport, a requirement that limits their freedom of movement. The situation is generally more favourable in urban areas, where many women act in management roles in the economic sector and are generally able to travel freely for business purposes, both inside and outside the country. Husbands can, however, also limit their wives’ professional activity.
There are no reported restrictions on Togolese women’s freedom of dress.
Afrol News (n.d.), Gender Profile: Togo, www.afrol.com/Categories/Women/profiles/togo_women.htm.
CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women) (2004), Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: Togo, Combined Initial, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Periodic Reports on States Parties, CEDAW/C/TGO/1-5, CEDAW, New York, NY.
Lutheran World Federation (2006), Report on the Status of Women in Togo, Lutheran World Federation, Geneva.
OMCT (Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture) (2002), Violence Against Women in Togo, OMCT, Geneva.
Anipah, Kodjo and Mboup, Gora, (1999), Enquête démographique et de santé au Togo 1998, Direction de la statistique, Togo,
US Department of State (2007), Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Togo, US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Washington, DC.
UN (United Nations) (2004), World Fertility Report 2003, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, New York, NY.
