Includes land rights in gender equity; issues in gaining access to land property – acquiring land rights from the state and through inheritance and the market, legal pluralism, population displacement; three postconflict studies (Rwanda, Guatemala, Afghanistan); conclusions and recommendations – legislation and policy, programme implementation, overcoming patriarchal norms, the cost of speaking out, gender sensitivity training and legal assistance, information on gender impact.

Asks whether land reform is still a goal worth pursuing for rural women. Includes gender and land reform; changing livelihoods and de-agrarianisation; insecurities; land tenure and land titling; limitations to land; arguments for landholding; a few policy and practical initiatives; conflicts over land and property. Concludes that, despite all the problems outlined, land reform for rural women is worth pursuing since, among other things, it would lessen the risks of hunger and malnutrition and also provide links to rights in other spheres.

This guide aims to help all stakeholders and companies who have a link with investments that affect land and property rights apply due diligence in their operations.

The purpose of the Guide is to provide advocacy information, advice and tools to those wishing to use the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and its Optional Protocol to secure the land and property rights of women. It is directed at NGOs and advocates working on these specific issues. Includes overview of CEDAW and key actors, how can NGOs use and engage with CEDAW review processes?, complaints, themes and general recommendations, additional resources.

Includes competing views of land-grabbing, Code of Conduct: consolidation of land-grab agenda, the many faces and directions of land use and land property relations change today, the ‘land sovereignty’ alternative.

Covers traditional cultural norms and values, including property and inheritance, religion and witchcraft; and learning from good practice, including advocacy, influencing customary legal culture, support services, awareness raising, children’s knowledge and life skills, conclusions and recommendations. Based on studies in Gaza, Manica, Zambezia and Nampula.

A study in the Oromiya and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples regions of Ethiopia assesses the impacts of land registration and certification since 2004, including joint certification for husbands and wives. Includes gender implications of land certification and empowerment of women, position of polygamous wives, perceptions of benefits of the reform, recommendations.

Rwanda has provided a picture of promising change for improving gender equalities in land rights. This report draws upon extensive qualitative field research in 20 sectors of Rwanda to examine the current state of gendered rights to land in practice. Among Rwandan communities, there is now widespread knowledge of laws granting gender-equal rights. More and more women are receiving inheritance and inter-vivos gifts and are increasingly receiving these in equal shares, while formally married women are exercising greater decision-making power over land held jointly with their husbands.

Examines recent progress on developing indicators to measure land rights as part of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016. Argues that the current proposed indicators are too narrow and that a more appropriate indicator, which has achieved a high level of consensus, should be adopted by the UN. This would directly measure the land rights of women and men as well as indigenous peoples and local communities. It would also cover a range of land, property and natural resources rather than simply agricultural land and would focus on secure rights rather than ownership.

Report presents grassroots women’s approaches to access justice with a focus on land and property rights in Africa. This community empowerment-based research undertaken by the Huairou Commission and its partner groups across 7 African countries – Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe – showcases women’s rights challenges and effective strategies to improve women’s access to justice. These groups are making an impact through strategies such as community mapping exercises, local-to-local dialogues, and developing community watchdogs and training community paralegals.

Examines women’s land and property rights in Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia. Considers the legal and other impediments hindering these rights in situations of conflict and reconstruction. Outlines the practical problems faced by women in connection with the legal and traditional structures regarding land and property rights, and makes some suggestions about how the situation can be rectified.

En este trabajo se analiza la legislación sobre la ocupación y propiedad de la tierra, promulgada entre el período colonial y 1880. Desde un punto de vista comparativo se señalan los aspectos de continuidad y ruptura en la normativa, destacando la manera en que las nuevas leyes fueron modificando a las más antiguas. Por otro lado, se exponen las discusiones historiográficas, verificando el avance de los estudios, las cuestiones que no se han trabajado y las que han motivado mayor debate.