WUNRN
WOMEN'S HOUSING & LAND RIGHTS
COHRE - Centre on Housing Rights
& Evictions
Housing Rights Violations Are Not
Gender-Neutral.
More than 70 percent
of people living in inadequate housing are women and housing rights violations
impact women in gender-specific ways.
From the woman who has
no other housing option than to stay in a situation of domestic violence in
order to keep from becoming homeless, to the young mother struggling in the
slums without basic tenure security for herself and her family, to the girl
orphaned by HIV/AIDS and prohibited from inheriting housing and land on an
equal basis with her brothers, it is women and girls who find themselves
confronted with the most desperate situations of housing insecurity.
COHRE believes that
securing women’s rights to housing and land is fundamental to improving women’s
status and their lives.
Women are often the
primary targets during forced evictions, which most often take place during the
day, when women are at home. In the midst of the violence and chaos that often
accompanies forced evictions, the perpetrators of forced evictions – including
the police – often commit acts of physical and sexual abuse against women and
girls.
Concepts such as the
“head of household” are also commonly used to deprive women of equal ownership
and security of tenure.
In order to secure
women’s housing and land rights, COHRE believes that we must use a methodology
and approach that recognises that gender-neutral forms of advocacy are not
enough to make a real change in the lives of women. It must also be understood
that those women’s housing rights violations are not only rooted in unjust
systems of poverty and social neglect, they are also deeply-rooted in systems
of gender-based oppression that must themselves be challenged and put right.
(© COHRE)
To ensure that housing
rights benefit women and advance the goal of gender equality, COHRE’s Women and
Housing Rights Initiative works to:
·
Enforce and strengthen the international
human rights framework so that women are able to fully enjoy their housing and
land rights in practice.
·
Defend and advocate on behalf of women’s
housing and land rights at all levels and fight against the denial of these
rights in all forms.
·
Empower and support women and their
advocates to effectively claim women’s housing and land rights and to combat
gender-based discrimination.
For more information, please contact Mayra Gomez, COHRE’s Senior Expert on Women and Housing Rights, on women@cohre.org.
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Landesa Rural Development Institute
Center for Women's Land Rights
WOMEN & LAND RIGHTS
When women have legal control over their land, they can become investors in their family’s future and can ensure that their children’s needs are met.
When women have secure rights to land:
- Family nutrition and health improve
- Women are less likely to contract and spread HIV/AIDS
and are better able to cope with the consequences of AIDS
- Women are less likely to be victims of domestic
violence
- Children are more likely to get an education and stay
in school longer
- Women may have better access to micro-credit
Investing in a woman’s land rights creates an extraordinary ripple effect that spreads to her family, village, and beyond.
However, in much of the world, while women shoulder the burden of food production—women produce as much as 60 to 80 percent of food in the developing world—they often don’t have secure rights to the land they farm. Although they till the fields, they are often barred from inheriting or owning those fields. This puts them at risk for losing that land if they lose their husband, father, or brother because of illness, violence, or migration. And losing the land often means losing their source of food, income, and shelter.
Landesa is working to ensure that, across the world, women and the children they support have secure land rights, which provide opportunity and stability. We recognize that this work involves not only laws, but also traditions and customs. We know that women’s land rights have to be both legally and socially enforceable to be effective.
The Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights
To address these challenges, unite the global community in support of women’s land rights and maximize the impact of land to the tiller programs around the world, Landesa launched the Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights in 2009. The Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights provides resources and training that connects policymakers, researchers, and practitioners from around the world. We pilot innovative solutions to women’s lack of secure land rights and educate development experts about the gap between customary and institutional law.
Our Goals
- Strengthen women’s property rights in law and in
practice in countries where we work, while closing the gap between
customary and formal law.
- Develop engaged professionals around the world
dedicated to advancing women’s land rights.