40 years of PNDCL 111: AWLA urges parliament to pass amendment bill urgently

The leading association of women lawyers, AWLA, has called on Parliament to fast-track long-awaited reforms to the country’s inheritance regime as the landmark Intestate Succession Law, PNDCL 111, clocks 40 years.

In a press statement dated 17 November 2025, the African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA) Ghana described the 1985 law as “revolutionary” for its time but warned that it no longer reflects the structure of modern Ghanaian families or contemporary patterns of wealth and asset ownership. 

The group is urging immediate passage of the Intestate Succession (Amendment) Bill to align the framework with today’s social and economic realities. 

PNDCL 111 was introduced to curb abuses under customary inheritance rules that frequently left widows and children, particularly girls, completely excluded from a deceased person’s estate. The law created a uniform national formula for sharing property where a person dies without a will, guaranteeing specified shares to spouses, children and parents and reducing reliance on discriminatory practices. According to AWLA, this intervention has, over four decades, provided a critical safety net for countless families and served as a model for reforms in other African jurisdictions. 

The association credits the law with catalyzing broader awareness of property rights, driving more Ghanaians to seek legal advice and write wills, and enabling courts to build a body of precedent that has strengthened the rights of women and dependants. It also notes that the statute helped entrench the constitutional principle of equality before the law by expressly recognizing the legal rights of spouses regardless of gender. 

However, AWLA flags a series of structural gaps that, in its assessment, now undermine the law’s effectiveness. The statement points to a narrow definition of “spouse” that excludes long-term cohabiting partners, vague drafting around key terms such as “child”, “household chattels” and “residence”, and the near-total silence of the statute on polygamous marriages, which remain common under customary and Islamic law. This silence, the group argues, leaves multiple wives dependent on the discretion of family heads or courts, producing inconsistent and often inequitable outcomes when a man dies intestate. 

AWLA also highlights operational bottlenecks. Estate administration under the current framework can be complex, expensive and intimidating, particularly for rural and low-income women. At the same time, the law has not kept up with changing asset classes: joint bank accounts, pensions and digital assets now form a significant portion of many estates yet are not clearly addressed in the 1985 statute. Limited public awareness and weak enforcement further dilute the law’s impact.

The proposed Intestate Succession (Amendment) Bill is positioned by AWLA as the vehicle for a comprehensive refresh. The Bill would broaden the definition of “spouse” to cover recognised cohabiting partners, clarify entitlements in polygamous and blended families, simplify estate procedures and bring pensions and jointly acquired property squarely within the statutory regime. These reforms, the association says, are essential to keeping Ghana’s succession framework aligned with the 1992 Constitution and the country’s international human rights obligations. 

Beyond Parliament, AWLA is calling on the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and the Attorney-General’s Department to collaborate closely with civil society to expedite the legislative process, and on citizens to take personal responsibility by making wills and understanding the protections currently available. At 40 years, the association insists, Ghana must not allow any spouse or child to be pushed into destitution by outdated inheritance rules, framing passage of the Amendment Bill as a decisive step towards equality, dignity and justice for all families.