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Huairou Commission Statement on Legal Empowerment of the Poor - Gender

http://www.huairou.org/assets/download/legal_empwr_overall_recs.pdf

 

"Women represent two-thirds of the world's poorest people.... The Huairou Commission considers that any changes to improve the lives of the poor require a strong gender perspective if they are to truly be effective in eradicating poverty."....

 

"The recommendations in this report have been deliberated and presented by grassroots women leaders, often with large constituencies."....

 

"While women suffer burdens of poverty and lack of implementation of their rights, they also provide innovative strategies and solutions."....   

 

"Legal rights are an important framework for women. Yet, these rights co-exist with cultural, social, economic, and political realities that often obstruct poor women from enjoying their rights. In seeking to strengthen women's access to and control over assets, for example, traditional rights-based approaches often prioritize legal rights and legal reform, overlooking the underlying power dynamics that exist within families and communities that keep women from owning and controlling land and businesses and overlooking women's successful practices at the community level. Together, these perspectives can lead to tangible change at high levels of government as well as community levels."....

 

http://www.huairou.org/knowledge/News/2007/04-07-Commission-on-Legal-Empowerment.html

 

The Huairou Commission and the Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor: Putting Empowerment into Practice

Huairou Commission Reports from Legal Empowerment Process

Huairou Commission overall recommendations

GROOTS Kenya

Maasai Women Development Organization

UCOBAC

UPLINK

The Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor is carrying out a broad consultation process in several regions of the world. The consultations lead to consciousness-raising and national legal reforms

The Huairou Commission has seized the opportunity to partner with the Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor to include the voices of poor women directly in their global consultation and legal reformation process. Legal Empowerment offers an important opportunity for the grassroots women to contribute their recommendations alongside other kinds of academics and experts. This grassroots participation truly puts empowerment into action!

The Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor aims to make the link between poverty and the inability of the poor to access acceptable, legal structures to protect economic assets and support economic activities. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto co-chair Legal Empowerment. Legal Empowerment is comprised of Commission members, many of whom are former heads of state and senior policy interns.

Common Issues Emerge as a Global Grassroots Platform
Common issues are evident from the Grassroots Academies held thus far. Repeating the process in more countries will help to consolidate a global grassroots platform of issues and recommendations. One common issue that stands out from the three Grassroots Academies is that women are pushing for citizen participation in the decisions made on the use of public land and natural resources. They call for national legal structures regarding property rights and access to justice to reach the local level through mechanisms such as information dissemination and Training of Trainers. They also call for more transparency around procedures for slum evictions. Regulatory reform and support services are required to support women’s entrepreneurship and simplification of bureaucratic procedures are necessary for women’s small businesses to succeed, they say.

Successful Grassroots Academies Held in Kenya, Uganda and Indonesia
Grassroots Academies, or grassroots women's consultations, were carried out by local affiliates of the Huairou Commission in preparation for the Legal Empowerment consultation process in their countries. Meaningful participation of grassroots women in setting policy agendas require preparatory processes that enable grassroots women to collectively determine their priorities, to identify barriers to their development work and to frame their recommendations.

Grassroots women leaders from groups in poor urban and rural communities gathered. They:

Download the Huairou Commission's overall recommendations to the Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor here.





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