Abstract

The majority of women in Third World countries depend on land for their livelihood. In most parts of Africa, land ownership is affected by traditional values, inheritance rights, and government influence.

These forces have provided varying types of  tenure which are detrimental to the women in rural and urban areas. Land acquisition and its development has been an emotive issue due to traditional pressures and the law as regards the process of land certification.

The government and traditional administrations are highly involved in the way women own land and it subsequently developed in Anglophone Cameroon. State authority over land acquisition is important, but the process for obtaining land title is herculean especially for the rural woman. This study illustrates that land acquisition and development by women constitute a problem because of traditional pressures and the law guiding the process of land certification.

There is an urgent need to exhume the barriers of government’s legal instrument which regulates the ownership of land and to revisit some traditional practices as regards land ownership that negatively impact on women in a changing and globalizing world.

A compromise approach is advocated for land acquisition that can transcend traditional barriers as well as render the process of land registration more realistic especially for women; and therefore enabling them to contribute considerably to food production which leads to sustainable development.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.0 Background

Women’s right to property includes the right to acquire and dispose of any movable or immovable property obtained by their own labour or through inheritance. The right of property is a broad notion which is regulated by both statutory and customary law.

Women’s right to land is very important with regard to women’s social statute, empowerment and the participation in economic well-being. Also, land is a basic source of livelihood and so provides employment. Thus, agriculture is mostly done by women; most of which do not even have securities on those lands.

The difficulty to acquire land faced by women under customary law lie on the belief that a woman is a property herself and so cannot own property. It can then be seen that the dispossession of women’s land rights by custom is based on four fallacies: (1) women’s status as property, (2) women and levirate marriage, (3) women’s instability, (4) women’s and remarriage fallacies according to which women do not have identity of their own. As a result, women’s rights to land are defined by their relationships to men and not as persons with independent rights.

Under statute, problems relating to women’s land rights rest on the fact that there are a great number of legislations, decrees. Administrative orders that are unassembled and incomprehensive but also gender neutral and inadequate with customary law.

International and regional instruments were then put in place to fight against the violation of women’s right to land. These instruments include the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW) and its Optional Protocol in 2000, the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action (BDPA), the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights in 2003, and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in 2004 have provided for the protection, respect and promotion of women’s property rights in Africa, including land rights.

After the adoption and coming into force of these different instruments, many African countries among which Cameroon struggled to meet with the requirements of these instruments. This was illustrated through the revision of the 1996 Constitution of Cameroon and the promulgation of laws more gender-sensitive.

However, there are no accompanying measures to enforce these laws in a predominantly patriarchal society which is customarily very sensitive and discriminatory against women.

1.2 Statement of problem

In Cameroon, land can be acquired through inheritance, purchase and distribution by the state. But unfortunately, women are not favored in any of these ways. This is because property and inheritance women’s right is still mythical in favor of men; also, women and especially rural women do not have purchasing power and finally, State representatives in charge of the distribution of land are men who share it in favor of men.

These elements led to the production of a land tenure system which is prejudicial to women, despite Cameroon’s adherence to the universal principles of human rights as inscribed in the constitution.

Also, Cameroonian women produce 80% of the food in rural areas but yet only own 2% of the land and benefit of only 5% of the total agricultural input. Generally, women’s access to land depends on their relation to men, either as wives, daughters, sisters or females relatives.

Moreover, government and traditional rulers are very implicated in women acquisition to land. And the inadequacies existing between statute and customary law lead to the creation of an environment further exploited by elites, grazers and in-laws to make women more and more vulnerable and remain perpetual users of land without any security tenure.

1.3 Objectives of the study

1.3.1 General objective

The main objective of this research seeks to examine the issue of women’s right to own and use land both under statutory and customary laws and how it gives rise to current gender discrimination in landownership.

1.3.2 Specific objectives

1. To examine the steps taken by women to enjoy their right to own land.
2. To examine the role played by the government in the enforcement of women’s right to land.
3. To look at the evolution of the position according to which women cannot own land.
4. To examine the relationship between women’s ownership of land and food securities.
5. To offer some recommendations that will help in this specific domain.

Check out: Law Project Topics with Materials