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Woman standing in front of her house, Copperbelt Region, Zambia
Local women meeting with COHRE researchers, Jordan |
Women's Inheritance Rights and Equal Rights to Marital Property
Securing women's equal rights to housing, land and property
Inheritance is a fundamental issue with regard to how wealth is transferred within a society, and it directly relates to the protection of a woman’s housing and land. It reflects some of the systemic reasons for women’s disproportionately high levels of poverty and housing insecurity around the world.
Stripping women of marital property upon the death of a spouse is one of the most frequent methods used to deprive women of their assets. Many societies in developing countries transfer property through ‘inheritance’ and other customary means which often preference men and boys over women and girls. This does not only perpetuate gender inequality in access to housing, but also disadvantages women economically thus condemning them to a system of dependency on men. As observed by UN-Habitat, “The fact that women do not inherit property to the same extent as men has been identified as a major obstacle to their economic empowerment and is claimed to be a cause of the ‘feminisation of poverty’.” Widowed women have suffered loss of property to relatives of their deceased husbands because of the perception that women do not own property or are property themselves and therefore have to be inherited along with other properties. In the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, lack of land or shelter has become a major challenge for women affected or infected by the disease.
Disinheritance robs a woman of her home, land and property – basic things that she needs to live in peace, and in a secure and dignified environment. The concept of succession, particularly under customary law, is also a question of status; therefore power and gender relations figure prominently. The succession debate is also not removed from broader questions of land rights, particularly in the case of customary laws, which were often historically designed to achieve a particular economic or social goal (e.g. preventing alienation and consolidating land holdings). With current economic policies focusing on individualisation, privatisation and marketability of land, new conflicts over rights of control, use and access to land are created.
In much of the world, customary law generally awards property to male members of the family, who usually assume control over the property. In some instances male members of the family also replace the deceased as ‘heads of households’ with responsibility over the deceased’s wife and his dependent children. Women married under customary law are vulnerable because of the inherent discrimination against women in many traditional systems. For example, in many countries, customary marriages are automatically considered to be out of community of property, which means that not only does the husband retain all property acquired before and during the marriage, he also gains control over the property of his wife.
Despite this, women’s rights to inherit housing and land are enshrined under international human rights laws. Protections for women’s equality and rights to non-discrimination are outlined in numerous conventions, covenants and resolutions, which additionally defend women’s rights to housing, land and property ownership, access and control, and the right to inherit on an equal basis with men.
Through its innovative research in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa, COHRE’s Women and Housing Rights Programme has documented that under many systems of law and society, women - regardless of their marital status - cannot own or inherit land, property and housing in their own names. The protections of international law often are obstructed by discriminatory common law, non-accessible judicial systems, and inequitable customary legal systems and traditions.
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COHRE Publication
”In Search of Equality” (2007)
Recently, COHRE’s Women and Housing Rights Programme examined women’s inheritance, housing and land rights to the Middle East/North African region, examining Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Turkey. The focus of research was on the legal situation of women’s inheritance rights in these countries, as well as on women’s actual experiences with respect to disinheritance.
Research findings are presented in COHRE's report, In Search of Equality: A Survey of Law and Practice related to Women’s Inheritance Rights in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. This exciting publication examines inheritance rights in the MENA region through a human rights lens, uncovering obstacles to and strategies towards their realisation. The report includes contributions from sister organisations in these eight MENA countries and reveals the complexity of the issues, identifies causes and consequences of inheritance rights violations, and recommends key changes, based on a human rights framework. Each chapter addresses particular concerns relevant in the country - whether it be a lack of rights awareness as in Jordan; negative effects of a civil war, as in Lebanon; or a fundamentalist regime, as in Iran. In each chapter, in-country organisations present a compelling examination of the numerous factors which, unfortunately, come together to effectively deny women their equal inheritance rights.
This work builds upon previous COHRE work on inheritance rights in sub-Saharan Africa, and makes possible a comparative review of the reality of inheritance rights in the MENA and the sub-Saharan Africa region. Lessons learned from each region are summarised, and importantly, holistic strategies to address inheritance rights violations are proposed. These recommended strategies reflect the necessity of challenging and eliminating systemic obstacles to women’s equality, including gender-biased practices, patriarchal traditions and customs, and social norms and attitudes which promote women’s dependency and submission to men. At the same time, legal frameworks that allow women to own and inherit property on an equal basis with men must also be established and implemented.
This report is available for download below.
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| "In Search of Equality: A Survey of Law and Practice related to Women’s Inheritance Rights in the MENA Region" (2007) |
Download this COHRE report here.
 download pdf [en]
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| COHRE Media Release on Women's Inheritance Rights, April 2006 |
The Denial of Women's Inheritance Rights in the Middle East, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa and its impact on the spread of HIV/AIDS etc.
 download doc [en]
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COHRE Publication
"Bringing Equality Home" (2004)
For millions of women in sub Saharan Africa, the systematic denial of housing and property inheritance rights lies at the heart of their economic marginalisation and housing poverty.
In 2004, the COHRE Women and Housing Rights Programme released its groundbreaking report “Bringing Equality Home: Promoting and Protecting The Inheritance Rights of Women – A Survey of Law and Practice in sub-Saharan Africa”. This report examines the situation of women’s inheritance rights and equal right to marital property in ten sub Saharan African countries in various parts of the region: Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal in the west; Ethiopia and Rwanda in the east; Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe in the south.
In this report, each country’s legislation and administrative policies were reviewed as they relate to land, housing and, particularly, inheritance issues. This review includes constitutions, administration of estates acts, marriage and marital property acts, inheritance and succession laws, and land laws, etc. Wherever possible, the report also provides an overview of customary law and traditions related to inheritance. The report also highlights the realities of women’s experience of inheritance rights denial using personal testimony and information from secondary sources. With international human rights as the standard of measurement, the report examines the laws and situations in each country and makes specific recommendations for the way forward.
This report is available for download below.
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Top of Page | Page Contents
| “Bringing Equality Home: Promoting and Protecting The Inheritance Rights of Women” (2004) |
Download this COHRE report here.
download pdf [en]
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| "A Place To Live: Women's Inheritance Rights in Africa" (2005) |
This short book comes from the longer COHRE report (Bringing Equality Home). It is an easy to read version for ordinary folk so that they can find out about what COHRE and others think should happen to make things better for women.
download pdf [en]
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| WHRP Fact Sheet Four: Custom, Tradition and Women's Housing Rights |
This fact sheet contains information on women's inheritance rights and equal rights to marital property.
download pdf [en]
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| WHRP Fact Sheet Ten: Women's Housing Rights in the Context of HIV and AIDS |
This fact sheet addresses how the HIV and AIDS pandemic, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, is serving to accelerate women's disinheritance and the denial of women's housing, land and property rights.
download pdf [en]
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