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This document reports on a workshop held in South Africa in June 2003 to address continuing insecurity of women's land rights. It brought together a broad group of participants covering NGO, grassroots, government, UN agency staff, researchers, activists, lawyers, and women living with HIV/AIDS. Some of the issues that emerged in the workshop were:ways in which women could mobilise in defence of their rights varied in relation to their social status, family networks, access to state services and attitudes of state officialsa low level of knowledge about rights and the lack of resources to pursue them often narrow women’s possibilities of accessing their rights to land and housing'formal' property rights administration systems are generally neither transparent nor accessible to slum dwellers and the poor in general because of their high costthere is a need to provide training and sensitisation in gender and human rights to the formal justice structures to create awareness and change perceptions and to improve the many flaws in traditional justice delivery structuresa human rights approach to housing and land rights is more effective and less contradictory than an approach which advocates land rights for women on the basis of the high percentage of work they do both within the household and on the landNGOs at grassroots level play an important role in helping women exercise their rights. However, their efforts are hampered by donor short-term commitment and externally-driven agendasinternational organisations ought to build on existing experiences rather than try to build things themselves.[adapted from author]
