Symposium on the Harmonization of Gender Indicators

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Symposium on the Harmonization of Gender
Indicators

• Guaranteeing womens and girls property and
  inheritance rights

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Formalising womens property rights can have both
intended and unintended consequences

• We had tongues but we could not speak, we had
  feet but we could not walk. Now that we have
  land, we have strength to speak and walk.
• A poor peasant woman of Bodghaya (India 1987)
• Titling of land is our greatest curse.
• Woman interviewed during land commission hearings
  
• (Kenya 1993)

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Proposed indicators

• Strategic priority
• Guarantee womens and girls property and
  inheritance rights
• Proposed indicators
• Land ownership by male, female, or jointly held
• Housing title, disaggregated by male, female, or
  jointly held

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Questions about the proposed indicators

• What particular property regime is promoted by
  these indicators and, as a consequence, what set
  of economic and social relationships, including
  those of gender, do they construct?
• 2. To what extent do the indicators allow us to
  move beyond measurement of formal gender parity
  to measuring the quality of any apparent change
  towards gender equality?
• 3. Are the indicators going to tell us something
  meaningful about womens empowerment and
  equality, or have the indicators become an end in
  themselves?

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1. What particular property regime is promoted?

• Questions to consider in formulation of the
  Action Plan
• Can the indicators be stretched to measure
  enjoyment of those property rights that are
  meaningful to the poorest women, who are likely
  to be homeless and landless, like access to
  adequate housing, security of tenure and
  usufructory rights?
• How can the customary practices that provide land
  or housing security for women be retained in the
  face of the hegemony of market-oriented
  practices?
• Can the indicators be expanded to include the
  measurement of discrimination against women who
  are widowed, divorced, single or marginalized for
  other reasons, in the enjoyment of property
  rights?

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2. To what extent do the indicators allow us to
move beyond measurement of formal gender parity?

• Questions to consider in formulation of the
  Action Plan
• How could the indicators be supplemented so that
  the quality of change in womens formal enjoyment
  of property rights is measured?
• For example, does ownership enhance womens
  bargaining power within households decrease the
  prevalence of domestic violence empower women to
  make decisions about how the land is managed? Or
  does ownership lead to an increase in womens
  unpaid domestic/family-related labour?

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3. Are the indicators going to tell us something
meaningful?

• Questions to consider in formulation of the
  Action Plan
• Are there indicators that can draw on data that
  is already collected, or that can be more easily
  collected?
• What qualitative measures could supplement the
  quantitative indicators and help to interpret and
  deepen our understanding of the quality of the
  impact that the indictors measure?

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A human rights approach

• Emphasizes four central principles
• non-discrimination and equality
• participation and empowerment
• accountability
• interdependence and indivisibility of human rights

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non-discrimination and equality

• whether women
• enjoy full and autonomous equality before the
  law
• have independent access to credit, loans and
  social security entitlements
• own an equal share of marital property during
  marriage and at its dissolution, and are able to
  exercise that ownership
• are entitled to equal shares in the estate of a
  deceased and equal rank in the order of
  succession
• equally enjoy the right to adequate housing that
  is affordable, accessible, habitable, culturally
  adequate and has security of tenure, services
  available and location
• enjoy the protection of effective
  anti-discrimination laws that prohibit all forms
  of discrimination against women in the enjoyment
  of all forms of property rights.

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participation and empowerment

• Indictors suggested
• whether land and housing laws, reforms, policies
  and practices have been determined through
  meaningful consultation with those women who will
  be most affected by them
• whether there are education and training programs
  that keep women informed about local and national
  land and housing issues, and of their related
  human rights
• whether women are encouraged to pursue economic
  opportunities through the formation of womens
  self-help groups and cooperatives.

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accountability

• Indictors suggested
• whether effective complaints mechanisms have been
  established to monitor womens equal enjoyment of
  land and housing rights
• whether information and legal literacy programs
  for women are available in order to ensure that
  women know how to hold the state accountable in
  the event that they are unable to enjoy equal
  property rights
• whether education programs are provided to ensure
  that judges, administrative decision-makers,
  politicians, local authorities, business men and
  women, and others with power, understand their
  obligations with respect to womens equal
  enjoyment of land and property rights
• whether special measures have been adopted to
  accelerate the achievement of womens equal
  enjoyment of property rights.

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interdependence and indivisibility of human
rights

• Indictors suggested
• whether the state is actively promoting and
  supporting the idea of womens equality in the
  public and private spheres in all its policies
  and practices
• whether educational bodies and training programs,
  at all levels, use gender-inclusive curriculum
• whether the state is implementing laws, policies
  and programs to eradicate discrimination against
  women in every sphere of life.

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Advantages of a human rights framework

• asserts the importance of womens equality as an
  end in itself
• emphasizes grass roots empowerment and
  participation
• links directly with states international legal
  obligations
• highlights the need for accountability mechanisms.