A/69/62
title to almost no land, 453 or in urban areas, where households headed by women are common and formal land ownership is particularly scarce for the poor, 454 enormous numbers of women lack the security of home and livelihood for which land tenure and property rights are so critical. 612. In the Programme of Action Governments committed to ensure that women could buy, hold and sell property and land equally with men; obtain credit and negotiate contracts in their own name and on their own behalf; and exercise their legal right to inheritance. 613. Results of the global survey indicate that 76 per cent of Governments have enforced laws to guarantee women’s property rights, including the right to own, buy and sell properties or other assets equally with men; this proportion increases to 86 per cent in Asia. While 65 per cent of Governments reported enforcing laws to guarantee equal rights for women to inherit, 72 per cent reported enforcing laws to protect women’s property through harmonized laws on marriage, divorce, succession and inheritance. In both cases, the regional proportions were close to the world average, with the exception of Oceania, where the proportions fell to 50 per cent and 43 per cent respectively. 614. Despite these advances, many countries continue to have discriminatory property and inheritance laws or practices. Even where civil laws have been introduced to provide equal rights to inheritance and ownership, they are not necessarily implemented or respected at a local level owing to persistent discriminatory social norms and the application of customary or religious laws. 615. Analysis of data from the OECD Social Institutions and Gender Index shows that, for countries where data are available, women hold only 15 per cent of all land titles. 455 Where they are unable to exercise their rights to land, women are particularly at risk of eviction following the death of their husbands. Furthermore, as access to formal credit relies heavily on asset-based lending, land-poor borrowers are at a disadvantage; data confirm that women’s reduced access to land limits their access to credit, thereby limiting women’s economic opportunities. 456 616. Moreover, women’s poverty, coupled with a lack of alternative housing options, makes it difficult for women to leave violent family situations. Forced relocation and forced eviction from home and land have a disproportionately severe impact on women. Lack of property rights often prevent return following displacement, or may push women to stay with land even in the face of significant dangers. The impact of gender-based discrimination and violence against women on women’s equal ownership of, access to and control over land and the equal right to
__________________ 453
454
455
456
14-22369
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Gender, Property Rights and Livelihoods in the Era of AIDS; FAO Technical Consultation, Rome 28-30 November 2007 — Proceedings Report (Rome, 2008); available from ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ ai521e/ai521e00.pdf. C. S. Rabenhorst and A. Bean, “Gender and property rights: a critical issue in urban economic development” (Washington, D.C., International Housing Coalition and Urban Institute, 2011). OECD, 2012 SIGI: Social Institutions and Gender Index: Understanding the Drivers of Gender Inequality. N. Almodóvar-Reteguis, K. Kushnir and T. Meilland, “Mapping the legal gender gap in using property and building credit”, Women, Business and the Law (World Bank, 2012).
215/286