Women, Land , Housing and Property Rights

We focus on the increasing global urgency and concerns about the women’s land, housing and property rights. In most societies, women have historically managed and fulfilled the responsibilities of domestic labor, family care, and nutritional security. As the definition of these gender roles and contexts surrounding them become more tenuous (generating both positive and negative impacts on women), the need for women to be able to secure land, housing and property has become even more critical. CESCRA seeks to address the cross-cutting nature of women’s human rights issues. Women’s land and housing rights intersect with other problems such as discriminatory inheritance patterns, development issues, gender-based violence, the appropriation and privatization of communal and indigenous lands as well as gendered control over economic resources and the right to work. The interdependence of women’s human rights highlights the importance of women being able to claim their right to adequate housing and land, in order to lessen the threat of discrimination, different forms of violence, denial of political participation, and other violations of their human rights.