Abstract
This 92nd issue of the International Journal of Discrimination and the Law comes at a time when the need for thinking about equality and addressing inequalities could not be more compelling, particularly in light of the wars being waged in the Ukraine and Palestine.
Whereas the previous issues focussed on intersections, this slim volume of only two contributions raises important aspects of family equality, the first focused on shared parental leave, the second on the recognition of same-sex foreign marriages.
Charlotte Bendall and Gemma Mitchell, in their article, ’The Shared Parental Leave framework: Failing to fit working-class families?’, look at the uptake of parental leave by fathers in the UK from a class perspective, also drawing in comparisons to the parental leave systems in Norway and Sweden. The authors start from the premise that Shared Parental Leave has the potential to tackle a traditional gendered-binary of roles within the family, by encouraging more men to care. However, the authors argue that the UK Shared Parental Leave does not speak to working-class parents, with ‘Equal parenting,’ as embodied within the legislation, imposing ideals that sit at odds with working-class people’s attitudes, whilst also assuming a two-parent family that often is incongruous with working-class family forms. The authors conclude by proposing a more holistic approach towards breaking down ‘heteronormative’ notions of women’s and men’s roles to enable people to make more meaningful choices about their lives that are not constrained by gender.
Jamil Mujuzi, in the case commentary, ‘Equality before the law and the recognition of same-sex foreign marriages in Namibia: Digashu and Another v GRN and Others; Seiler-Lilles and Another v GRN and Others [2023] NASC 14’, examines these 2023 Namibian cases from the perspective of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Namibian law, in contrast to several other African countries, does not expressly prohibit same-sex marriages. However, the Supreme Court held in 2001 that same-sex marriages were prohibited in Namibia. In the 2023 cases, the Supreme Court invoked Article 10 (1) of the Namibian Constitution and common law to overrule this 2001 decision, holding that Namibian law should recognise same-sex marriages entered into abroad, but declining to address whether discrimination on the ground of sexual-orientation is prohibited. In this note, the author explores why the court did not rule that the appellants had been discriminated against based on their sexual orientation.
We hope you will enjoy reading this last issue of 2023 and continue to support the work of the IJDL as readers, authors and commentators. Looking ahead, while as editors we will generally seek to maintain the current procedures and approach as taken with respect to the IJDL, we welcome suggestions for development with respect to the IJDL over the next few years, both as to content and publication procedure.
The IDJL editors
Professor Laura Carlson
Dr James Hand
Dr Panos Kapotas