1. Governance of African land rights and implications for women
The case of Rwanda
Presented by Shakilla K. Umutoni
Chargée d’Affaires of Rwanda
University of Ottawa
March 27, 2019

2. OUTLINE Women historical land rights
Legislative framework governing women’s land rights in Rwanda
Land reforms and its implications for women
Results achieved and current situation
Conclusion

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4. WOMEN’S HISTORICAL RIGHTS TO LAND
According to Rwandan custom, land ownership was a male privilege, with land rights being passed from father to son. Women were excluded from inheriting family land and only gained rights to land use through male relatives.
If there were no children, a widow was compelled to return to her parents. If the widow was in her reproductive years, levirate marriage (marriage to a brother of the deceased spouse) was often practiced; however, the children arising from this relationship were considered children of the deceased brother.
Besides marriage, there were other means by which a woman could gain access to land, specifically through family gifting practices or through temporary user rights over land held by their father’s patrilineage.
Indeed, according to Rwandan custom, women’s land rights were guaranteed by men because of their dependence upon the men in their families.

5. Legislative framework governing women’s land rights in Rwanda
Rwanda is among the first countries to have enacted a law that provides for equal inheritance rights for both the girl and boy child, law N° 22/99 of 12/11/1999.
This law was repealed with the adoption of Law Nº27/2016 of 08/07/2016 governing Matrimonial Regimes, Donations and Successions. Of an interest in this law, article 54 provides that all children male and female would inherit property, including land, without any discrimination.
As part of the commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment, the Government of Rwanda made the implementation of land reform a priority.
In 2004, a National Land Policy was put in place with the aim of guaranteeing a safe and stable form of land tenure, while marking the end of customary rights in Rwandan land policies.
This was followed by the enactment of the Organic Land Law N° 08/2005 of 14/07/2005, determining the use and management of land in Rwanda, later reviewed to the current law N°43/2013 OF 16/06/2013. Article 4 of this law provides that all forms of discrimination, such as that based on sex or origin shall be prohibited in relation to access to land and the enjoyment of real rights in land.
A number of instruments enshrine, support and implement women’s equal land rights.

6. The Constitution of 2003 and revised in 2015: Gender equality is enshrined in the Constitution, in which Rwanda affirms its adherence to the principles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), expressing its commitment to ensuring equal rights between Rwandans and between women and men without prejudice to the principles of gender equality and complementarity in national development.
The constitutional principle of equality in the context of land rights is expressed in the Land Law, whereby: “All forms of discrimination, such as that based on sex or origin, in relation to access to land and the enjoyment of real rights shall be prohibited”.

7. The Law Nº27/2016 of 08/07/2016 Governing Matrimonial Regimes, Donations and Successions (2016)
Since 1999, a gender revolution especially in terms of equal accessibility to land management of family properties was realized and for the first time, 1999 was witnessed as a year in Rwanda where both boys and girls had the same rights to inherit properties from their parents.The Law Nº27/2016 of 08/07/2016 is the instrument through which women can exercise their rights over marital property. It allows legally married spouses to choose among three matrimonial property regimes at the time of marriage: ‘community of property’, ‘limited community of property’ and ‘separation of property’. If no regime is explicitly chosen, the law presumes the couple to be married under the community of property regime.

8. The National Land Policy was put in place in February 2004: The guiding principles of this Policy, require that “all Rwandans enjoy the same rights of access to land without any discrimination whatsoever”. The policy also states that “women, married or not, should not be excluded from the process of land access, land acquisition and land control, and [that] female descendants should not be excluded from the process of family land inheritance”.
Organic Land Law No.08/2005, of 14/07/2005, determining the use and management of land in Rwanda. This Law states that “the right to land for a lawfully married man and woman shall depend on the matrimonial regime opted for”. The Land Law also provides that any transaction on land rights (including sale, rent, mortgage, succession and gift) requires the consent of all registered right holders.
The Organic law N°03/2013/OL of 16/06/2013 repealing organic law n° 08/2005 of 14/07/2005 determining the use and management of land in Rwanda.
The National Land Center was put in place in 2007
The 2008 Law on the Prevention and Punishment of Gender-based Violence (GBV Law),
The Government of Rwanda, through the National Land Center launched the Land Tenure Regularization Process (LTRP) in 2007:

9. The main objective of LTRP was to issue registered land titles to all individual landowners in Rwanda in order to ensure tenure security.
The other objectives of the LTRP are threefold: to decrease gender inequality with regards to access and rights to land; to optimize land use and socio-economic growth through property ownership and security; and to provide clear institutional legal frameworks for land ownership.
The LTRP documented many successes, including the documentation of 11,327,414 parcels of land by the middle of 2015, protection of the land rights of vulnerable groups including legally married women, increased confidence in land investment among others.
In addition, LTRP addressed the question of “who owns what" in Rwanda and this has significantly reduced the frequency of boundary based land disputes.
Moreover, LTRP showed that, LTRP has significantly increased the number of women accessing land titles alone or jointly with their husband

10. Gender proportion of privately owned land titles
Land parcels held by:
(a) women: 2,193, 068 (24%)
(b) men: 1,270,866 (14%)
(c) married couples (jointly): 5,340,840 (58.3%)
(d) More than 2 persons: 98,321 (1.068%)

11. LAND REFORMS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR WOMEN
The Government of Rwanda made land and women’s rights a priority since the post-genocide period during the rebuilding process.
This political will has enhanced the legal framework that protects the rights of women and emphasizes the importance of gender equality in social and economic development.

12. RESULTS
The data on the land ownership indicates that 81.9 % of female headed households own land compared to 79.6 % of their male counterpart.
Land is the main asset for production and investment. Land ownership has been very instrumental in contributing to women's access to finance. Women’s access to land tremendously contributed to their control over productive resources and access to loans using land titles as collaterals. For example, land contributed to 38% of women’s access to credit.
The land ownership allows women to use it as collateral and is one of the factors that has increased women access to finance. Currently, financial inclusion of women increased from 36% in 2012 to 63% in

13. RESULTS- c’d
About 63% of working females are in agriculture related occupations compared to 43% among working males (EICV 5, 2016/2017).
Land registration processes indicate that 24% of land is registered on only women as compared to 14% for men, 58.3% registered on both male and female and with 2% on other categories such as faith based organizations, etc.
The same as inheritance, Land reform in Rwanda supported women and men to have equal rights and enjoyment over their land properties. From this, both men and women have land titles registered on their names and this have facilitated especially women to access loans from financial institutions and engage in income generating activities.

14. RESULTS- c’d
The Land Tenure Regularization Process (LTRP) considerably contributed to a significant reduction of family conflicts, including Gender Based Violence.
The LTRP supported equal land ownership between wife and husband. Now almost every legally married woman is registered as a co-owner on the land title. It is a ownership between men and women;
Female Head of Households and Single women are allowed to register individual ownership of land;
All legitimate children under the civil law are allowed to inherit equally without any discrimination between male children and female children;
Women are now, of course after consultation with their husbands, giving their land to banks and micro-finance institutions as collateral to get loans and start small businesses

15. CONCLUSION LAND RIGHT IS HUMAN RIGHT AND ITS WOMEN’S RIGHT
LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK YES BUT IMPLEMENTATION IS CRUTIAL

16. THANK YOU!