objectives or effects compromise or destroy the recognition, enjoyment
or the exercise by women, regardless of their marital status, of human
rights and fundamental freedoms in all spheres of life;
(g) “Harmful Practices” means all behaviour, attitudes and/or practices
which negatively affect the fundamental rights of women and girls, such
as their right to life, health, dignity, education and physical integrity;
103. Article 7 of the Maputo Protocol on its part provides:
States Parties shall enact appropriate legislation to ensure that women and
men enjoy the same rights in case of separation, divorce or annulment of
marriage. In this regard, they shall ensure that: a) Separation, divorce or
annulment of a marriage shall be effected by judicial order; b) Women and
men shall have the same rights to seek separation, divorce or annulment of
a marriage; c) In case of separation, divorce or annulment of marriage,
women and men shall have reciprocal rights and responsibilities towards
their children. In any case, the interests of the children shall be given
paramount importance; d) In case of separation, divorce or annulment of
marriage, women and men shall have the right to an equitable sharing of the
joint property deriving from the marriage.
104. Article 12 of the UDHR states that
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family,
home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation.
Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference
or attacks.
105. The Court notes that after the Applicant obtained a preliminary divorce ruling
in her favour from the Tunis Court of First Instance on 4 June 2014, her
husband appealed the ruling before the Tunis Court of Appeal on 10 June
2014.
106. The Court notes that the Court of Cassation, the highest judicial body in the
Respondent State, held that “if the spouses appeal the divorce judgment,
28