Taking action: achieving gender equality and empowering women

Guarantee women’s property and inheritance rights
81
nearly 30 percent of cocoa land. 5 But parental discrimination against daughters
still exists. Fathers tend to transfer smaller areas of land to their daughters
than to their sons (Quisumbing, Estudillo, and Otsuka 2004).
Many Sub-Saharan African countries (Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania,
Uganda) have recently enacted legislation guaranteeing women the right to
own and inherit property in their own names and prohibiting sex-based discrimination
(table 6.3). Although statutory reform has been applauded by
many women’s rights activists, the reforms have been mixed. For instance,
Uganda’s 1998 Land Action and Condominium Law provides the basis for
women’s equal right to buy and own land and housing. However, inheritance
laws have yet to be adequately reformed. Widows have no right to sell land,
but can only farm or till it until their death. They also lose occupancy rights
upon remarriage. No such restrictions apply to widowers (Benschop 2002).
In other countries, such as Tanzania, the reforms are not being adequately
enforced.
Part of the problem in the application of property and inheritance rights
is that statutory and customary laws have not been harmonized in many
countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. 6 Customary law is embedded in traditional
attitudes and practices, and although customary laws vary across countries,
women generally cannot own or inherit land, housing, or property in their
Table 6.3
Status of legislation
on women’s rights
to land, housing,
and property in five
Sub-Saharan African
countries, as of 2004
Sources: Adapted from
Benschop 2002; COHRE 2004.
Legislation Uganda Kenya Tanzania South Africa Rwanda
Gender-based
discrimination
prohibited
Application
of customary
laws that
discriminate
against
women
prohibited
Women’s
equal right to
acquire land
and housing
Spousal
co-ownership
presumed
Yes Yes Partly;
discrimination
still allowed in
application of
personal law
and customs
Yes
Yes; implicitly
recognized
in Article
26 of the
Constitution
Women’s equal inheritance rights
Partly; only
if it denies
women lawful
access to
ownership,
occupancy, or
use of land
Yes; implicitly
recognized in
the Married
Women’s
Property
Act and
Registered
Land Act
Yes
Yes
No Yes Yes
Yes; explicitly
recognized in
Section 3(2)
of the Land
Act and the
Village Land
Act
No No Yes (Section
161 of the
Land Act)
For widows No No No Yes Yes
For
daughters
Partly
Partly; only for
Christians
Yes
No
Yes; private
property
rights
guaranteed
for every
“person”
by Article
29 of the
Constitution
No
Yes Yes Yes