Before 1999, land rights in Rwanda were governed by three regimes: customary
(traditional) law, colonial laws still in effect, and laws enacted after independence. In each of
these, men were privileged in ownership and control of land whereas women were excluded
or had fewer rights.
The 1999 Succession Law restructured and harmonized land ownership in Rwanda,
superseding all prior legislation. A significant portion of these changes related to gender
equality. Equal rights to umunani (umunani or ascending partition is an act accomplished by

In Kenya, insecure land tenure and inequitable access to land, forest and water resources have contributed to conflict and violence, which has in turn exacerbated food insecurity. To address these interlinked problems, a new set of laws and policies on food security and land governance are currently being introduced or designed by the Government of Kenya. The new Food Security Bill explicitly recognizes the link between food security and land access, and the 2012 land laws target the corrupt system of land administration that made much of Kenya’s land grabbing possible.

This workshop was orgainized at Bhubaneswar, India by Center for Land Governance, NRMC, Bhubaneswar with support of The World Bank, New Delhi. In this workshop salient findings on processes and progress made around gender equitable land tenure arrangements, best practices and challenges along with ground-happenings and post –land rights situations captured through community and stakeholders opinions were shared.

El caso señala a una niña que logra titular una porción de tierra a su nombre. Se trata de una mujer que logra ejercer su derecho a la sucesión y acceso a la tierra. La experiencia de Dania, su momento histórico en una comunidad andina cambiante, la convierten en un referente para las decisiones agrarias, al expresar una acción admirable por precautelar su bienestar y seguridad jurídica.

With 27,834 km² of surface area and a population of 10.5 million, Burundi’s population density is seven times that of Tanzania and second only to Rwanda’s on the African mainland (World Bank, 2014). Its population grows at an annual rate of 2.4%, and more than 90% of the population lives primarily on agriculture.

Em 2015, Moçambique celebrou 40 anos desde a proclamação da sua independência. Ocorreram entretanto grandes mudanças positivas em diversas áreas, apesar de um período relativamente longo de 16 anos de guerra civil, de finais dos anos 70 a princípios dos anos 90. Entre outras realiza- ções, no período pós-guerra reduziu-se a insegurança alimentar de 56% em 2003 para 24% em 2015, isto é, 32 pontos percentuais em 17 anos. A desnutrição também foi reduzida de 48% em 2008 para 43%, em 2015, isto é, 6 pontos percentuais em 7 anos.

No âmbito do projecto de Promoção da Justiça entre Homens e Mulheres no Acesso e Uso da Terra, implementado pelo Centro Terra Viva(CTV), em parceria com a OXFAM Bélgica, foi realizado um estudo de base para identificar a situação actual das comunidades residentes na zona abrangida pelo projecto e fornecer informações que poderão guiar os implementadores sobre como melhor responder às necessidades dos beneficiários.

Why do activist groups representing some of society’s most marginalized employ legalistic forms of ‘rights talk’ when the reality of securing rights via the judicial system is almost unimaginable? The article considers this question in relation to the work of the Malaysian non-governmental organisation (NGO) EMPOWER who, in 2011, produced the Malaysian Women’s Human Rights Report focusing attention on the rights of informal sector workers, refugees, sexual minorities and women’s rights under non-Islamic family law.

The 2003 Maputo Declaration on Food and Agriculture committed signatory countries across Africa to a 10% allocation of national budgets to agriculture by 2008. To bolster the implementation of this commitment, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) was established. But 12 years later, the situation for women smallholder farmers across Africa has hardly changed.

The Land Act, 2012

The Land Registration Act, 2012

The National Land Commission Act, 2012

The Environment & Land Court Act, 2011

The Urban Areas & Cities Act, 2011

There is a direct relationship between women’s right to land, economic empowerment, food security and poverty reduction. A gender approach to land rights can enable shifts in gender power relations, and assure that all people, regardless of sex, benefit from, and are empowered by, development policies and practices to improve people’s rights to land. This brief gives an overview on how to consider gender aspects in projects and programmes addressing land rights.