GABORONE, Botswana (AFP) - In a landmark ruling Botswana's High Court on Friday affirmed women's inheritance rights for the first time, up-ending a male-dominated system that had prevailed in the thriving African nation.
The court ruled that local customary laws -- giving the youngest-born son rights to inherit the family home -- are not in line with the country's constitution, which guarantees gender equality.
"It seems to me that the time has now arisen for the justices of this court to assume the role of the judicial midwife and assist in the birth of a new world struggling to be born," said Justice Key Dingake.
"Discrimination against gender has no place in our modern day society," he said, urging the government to take all discriminatory laws off the statute books.
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