Closing statement from workshop on culture, practice and law: women’s access to land in Rwanda. Contains recommendations on the marriage problem, the inheritance law, land scarcity and population growth, the land policy and the bill, the environment, discrimination.
As Parliamentary gender quotas have become increasingly popular, so too
has the debate surrounding their effectiveness in enhancing women’s
representation and gender equality in governments around the world. Women offer
unique and important perspectives to the political process, and thus their increased
political representation and empowerment can advance the very process of
development. In 2003, the Rwandan government Constitutionally enacted a gender
This paper discusses the major challenges women in Kenya face as they try to ensure and maintain food security at the household level. The challenges include access to and ownership of resources such as land, finance, water and affordable cooking energy; access to markets and proper infrastructure and
Women constitute the majority of small farmers, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, in countries around the world, they continue to be denied the right to own the ground that they cultivate and on which they raise their families. This publication, “Women’s Land and Property Rights in Situations of Conflict and Reconstruction,” presents a diversity of views and experiences that describe the multiple strategies being used in countries worldwide to secure women's rights to land and property.
This brief discusses a pilot intervention in Rwanda led by the Belgian
NGO, RCN Justice & Démocratie, with support from the International
Development Law Organization (IDLO) and the Belgian Government. A
more detailed and complete discussion of the pilot is given in Lankhorst
and Veldman (2011a). The pilot aimed to transform the customary
resolution of disputes involving women’s land claims concerning
inheritance or marital relations. The intervention examined whether
and to what extent it was possible to increase the scope for acceptance
In Rwanda, two factors make land a highly important and contested issue. First,
Rwanda has the highest person-to-land ratio in Africa. This creates tremendous
pressure on land in a country where most of the population lives in rural areas, and
where agriculture remains the central economic activity. Second, Rwanda is recovering
from massive population shifts caused by decades of ethnic strife and the 1994 civil war
and genocide, which resulted in displaced populations and overlapping land claims.
Research findings include: land rights in marriage and during cohabitation; daughters and inheritance rights; land disputes; land administration and registration; education and monitoring implementation of the Land Law.
Women’s rights to land remain a contested issue in Kenya despite the acceptance of the principle of equality of the genders in law. The 2010 Constitution of Kenya clearly provides for the principles of equality and non-discrimination at Article 27. Moreover, in the land policy principles and the national values and principles of governance, gender equality is included. Despite these clear provisions however, gender inequality in land relations persists. The patriarchal social ordering that privileges men in land holding has been a greater barrier to women’s land rights.
The Women’s Land Rights in Southern Africa Project (WOLAR) is aimed at enhancing women’s access to, ownership of, control over land and other productive resources and services in order to meet their basic livelihood needs and become more economically independent and secure.
Includes the legal and policy situation relating to women’s land rights in Southern Africa; women farmers speak out on which land rights are being enjoyed, or not; potential springboards to the realisation of women’s land rights; baseline trends and key conclusions; recommended action points.
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