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Madagascar and legal pluralism: can customary and statutory law be reconciled to promote women's land rights?






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    Legal pluralism, women’s land rights and gender equality in Mozambique 2017
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    Throughout history, land has been considered a main source of wealth, social status and power. This publication analyses the impacts of legal pluralism on women's land rights in Mozambique arguing that despite Mozambique's progressive legal framework, efforts are still needed to fully achieve gender equitable and socially just outcomes on the ground. With a largely rural population, and limited knowledge of statutory law, customary rules that are discriminatory towards women tend to prevail over the gender sensitive statutory law, undermining women's land rights. Based on FAO field experiences in Mozambique, the document presents the realities of customary justice and challenges faced by rural women, suggesting a series of actions that could be undertaken by key stakeholders to overcome such challenges.
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    Technical study
    Statutory recognition of customary land rights in Africa
    An investigation into the best practices for lawmaking and implementation
    2010
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    Given the recent trend of granting vast areas of African land to foreign investors, the urgency of placing real ownership in the hands of the people living and making their livelihood upon lands held according to custom cannot be overstated. This study provides guidance on how best to recognize and protect the land rights of the rural poor. Protecting and enforcing the land rights of rural Africans may be best done by passing laws that elevate existing customary land rights up into nations ' formal legal frameworks thereby making customary land rights equal to documented land claims. This publication investigates the various over-arching issues related to the statutory recognition of customary land rights. Three case studies of land laws in Botswana, Tanzania and Mozambique are analysed extensively in content and implementation, concluding with recommendations and practical considerations on how to write a land law that recognizes and formalizes customary land rights. It cautions lawmakers that even excellent laws may, in their implementation, fall prey to political manipulation and suggests various oversight and accountability mechanisms that may be established to ensure that the law is properly implemented, the land claims of rural communities are protected, and the legislative intent of the law is realized.

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