**Date: May 25, 2016**

CWLRCP is implementing a campaign on “Property Division After Marriage Between Spouses,” funded by the German Heinrich Böll Foundation from May 1 to August 30, 2016. The Center aims to lobby decision-makers to establish a system of joint property ownership between spouses, enabling them to divide assets acquired during the marriage, particularly to empower married women (in cases of divorce or widowhood) to equally share movable and immovable property acquired during the marriage.

Why This Campaign?

The CWLRCP has observed a growing phenomenon of economic violence against women in Palestinian society. The deprivation of women’s right to property has become a serious threat not only to married women but also to their families. Infringement upon women’s financial rights, both movable and immovable, has led to increased family disputes between spouses, ultimately leading to divorce and family breakdown. This includes encroachment on women’s financial rights, even those funds to which they have contributed.

The Center has also noted the expansion of economic violence in the Gaza Strip, especially after the 2014 war, which destroyed homes and resulted in the deaths of many husbands, leaving behind 790 widows. This has led to the confiscation of the right to property for a large number of women, even those who had previously participated in acquiring this property with their husbands.

CWLRCP’s field awareness and education campaigns have revealed a real problem for women in proving their property rights when documenting the extent of damages. The number of cases referred to the Center’s counseling unit reached approximately 30 in 2015 alone, including 12 women whose rights are being litigated before the courts and 18 women who received advice regarding infringement of their property rights acquired during marriage, noting that they are working women who contributed to achieving this ownership.

The Center’s counseling unit has been unable to provide justice to a number of women due to the absence of clear and explicit legal provisions establishing the wife’s right to assets realized and acquired during the marriage.

The Center seeks to raise societal awareness, especially among young people about to get married, regarding women’s right to share in assets acquired after marriage. It also seeks to encourage women to declare their position on their right to ownership of assets acquired after marriage equally with the husband, to avoid the husband acting independently in the ownership and management of family funds, and to exert pressure on decision-makers to establish a system of joint property acquired after marriage that automatically guarantees the wife’s right to share in assets after marriage.

Foundations of the Joint Property System:

• The joint property system is an optional system that spouses may choose when concluding the marriage contract or at a later date. It aims to make a property or a set of properties or movable assets jointly owned by the spouses whenever they are related to the family.
• Choosing the joint property system does not affect the rules of inheritance.
• The wife’s dowry is not included in the joint property system and is specific to the wife.
• Authorization for marriage is not valid unless the authorization includes the opinion of the client (husband/wife) on the issue of participation in the system of funds or not.
• The choice of a minor spouse for the joint property system depends on the approval of the guardian and the mother.
• A marriage concluded without stipulating the opinion of the spouses in the joint property system is considered a choice of the separation of property system.
• Regarding real estate: Real estate acquired after marriage is considered jointly owned by the spouses unless ownership is transferred to one of them by inheritance, gift, or will, and provided that it is designated for family use or for its benefit, whether the use is continuous, seasonal, or accidental. The attachments of that property and its yield, whatever their nature, are also considered shared by subordination.
• Real estate acquired after the marriage of those who concluded the agreement to participate in funds is considered jointly owned between the spouses, provided that the spouses declare the real estate they acquired from the beginning of the marriage contract.
• Regarding movable assets: Movable assets acquired after marriage are considered jointly owned between the spouses unless ownership is transferred to one of them by inheritance, gift, or will, provided that these funds are the result of commercial investments or the yield of real estate revenue.
• The spouses may agree to make the participation comprehensive for all their real estate and movable property, including those acquired before marriage.
• Debts are considered joint, as well as the burdens arising from the acquisition or exploitation of joint ownership, and debts related to the ownership of real estate are considered joint between the spouses.

The joint property system between the spouses ends in the following cases:

• Death of one of the spouses
• Divorce
• Loss of one of them
• Judicial separation of their property
• Agreement

The CWLRCP hopes that public figures, decision-makers, and civil and human rights organizations will rally around these demands so that an official decision can be issued to establish an optional system of joint property between spouses.

CWLRCP