Tura, H.A. (2014) ‘Women’s Right to and Control over Rural Land in Ethiopia: The Law and the Practice’, International Journal of Gender and Women’s Studies, 2(2), pp. 137–165.
The author started his writing by indicating women’s marginalisation and discrimination in accessing rural land in Ethiopia. Accordingly, women’s right to access and control over rural land in Ethiopia is very limited due to various socio-cultural impacts including negative attitudes, and customary practices that deny women the right to inheritance from their family. Moreover, the patriarchal structure that entrusts land to males has been operating against the right of women not to be entitled to the fruit of the land.
With a primary goal of assessing the extent to which the rural land use and administration law has been implemented with respect to women’s equal access to and control over rural land, the author used a mixed research approach of qualitative and quantitative methods. Random sampling was used to collect household surveys whereas purposive sampling is employed to collect qualitative data through Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions.
To curtail the challenges faced by women, actions taken by the Ethiopian government toward policy reform are appraised in this study. Accordingly, the promulgation of the 1995 FDRE constitution that recognises gender equality in various aspects including property right is the primary one. The Revised Family Code that ensures gender equality regarding ownership and administration of personal and common property, pecuniary effects of marriage that protect the women’s right to a property before marriage, during a marriage, and upon its dissolution is the second step towards enhancing women’s control and access to resources. The enactment of the Rural Land Administration Proclamation which aimed at ensuring women’s right over rural land is another milestone. Land Registration and titling were also promulgated to ensure women’s right to control over land that has been implemented in four Regions of the country( Oromia, Tigray, Amhara, and SNNPRs).
Unfortunately, the policy and institutional reform didn’t bring the required change toward women’s empowerment over the land and the traditional/customary practice is continued to the detriment of women’s interests. For example, in the Wolaita Zone, the study area of this paper, informal customary land rights, which constitute general knowledge of community members, influence the possession of land and other resources. In the area, men control the land and women gain access to it mostly through their relationship with a male relative. The study finding also indicated that divorced women are denied a share of the land controlled by their husbands as the land acquisition through marriage is effective only when the husband dies. It’s also found that in a polygamous marriage, husbands share yields obtained from the land registered in his name to all spouses. Moreover, the land regulation does not allow women to possess rural land if they reside outside of the localities where the land is found or if they engage in other businesses. Moreover, the justice system is not facilitating the interest of women as they face critical challenges in the enforcement of their rights through the lengthy court procedures that start at the lowest administrative unit of the government and stay for years until a final decision is given by the Federal Supreme Court’s Cassation Bench.
Accordingly, the author recommended that legal awareness education should be provided by concerned governmental and non-governmental bodies to the rural communities, and to law enforcing authorities at the federal and regional States governments, and the government should facilitate free legal aid services, with a primary purpose of empowering the women to enjoy their rights to the property,