Enhancing legal empowerment through engagement with customary justice systems

The complex relationship between law, land rights and customary practices is increasingly recognized as foundational to formulating successful development policies. Similarly, the essential role of women’s economic participation in development and the current trend of gender discriminatory land and inheritance customary practices have prompted domestic civil society organizations in developing countries to use statutory provisions guaranteeing gender equality to improve women’s land tenure security. This chapter examines the particular need for secure land rights for women in the African pluralistic development context, and the mixed results of targeting law reform as a mechanism for change. Relying on primary research conducted in Mozambique and the United Republic of Tanzania (hereafter “Tanzania”) on land practices as experienced by divorced and widowed women, current strategies employed by domestic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to enhance women’s access to justice and land tenure security are evaluated. In particular, the chapter analyses whether NGO initiatives to disseminate and use statutory law (rather than customary law) are overcoming the lack of knowledge, application and enforcement that have previously limited the effectiveness of progressive legislation. Specific and general conclusions are drawn from the data to generate recommendations for donors, governments and development institutions.

Location: Mozambique and Tanzania

Author(s): Amrita Kapur

Enhancing Legal Empowerment.CustWP_Moz-Tan_22sept2010.pdf — PDF document, 2852 kB (2920462 bytes)