Making Equal Rights Real
Translating Formal Land Rights into Reality
Renee Giovarelli and Elisa Scalise
Overview
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Why Land
Rights to Land
Who is vulnerable to unequal land rights
What is required to ensure secure land
rights for all
Why Land?
 Economic Access
 Agricultural production
 Income from rental or sale
 Collateral
 Social Access
 Household decision-making
 Community governance (status)
Formal Legal Rights to Land
 Right to occupy, use, and
receive benefit from land
 Public takings with notice
and compensation
 Regularize rights of
informal occupants
 Eliminate discrimination
against socially
disadvantaged groups
 Access to credit using land
as security
Customary Rights to Land
 Critically important to understand
interplay between customary rights and
formal legal rights
 Land rights have to be both legally and
socially enforceable
 Customary rights vary from country to
country and within countries or regions of
countries
Who is Vulnerable to Inequality?
 Discriminated against within
customary or formal land tenure
regimes (widows and orphans)
and have difficulty accessing
dispute resolution systems
 Rely on common property
regimes (indigenous populations,
pastoralist groups) when
reforms individualize ownership
and/or challenge local land
institutions
 Forcibly dislocated from places
of origin (natural disasters or
violent conflict)
How to effectuate legal rights
to land?
 Requires a continuum
of action:
(1) Legal Reform
(2) Legal awareness
(3) Legal information
(4) Legal capacity
(1) Legal Reform
 Legislation must
explicitly recognize
equal rights
 Regulations matter:
 What rights will be
recognized
 Documents required
(proof of marriage?
Identification cards?)
 Who is responsible for
non-discriminatory
implementation
(Bolivia)
(2) Legal Awareness
 General and broad
knowledge of rights
and obligations
 Communication
campaigns
 Political advocacy
 Social movements
 Materials customized
for geographic zone,
local language, and
cultural norms
(3) Legal Information
 Beyond awareness:
ongoing
communication
between provider and
receiver of
information
 Information kiosks
 Land rights
information centers
 Legal promoters
(Kyrgyzstan)
Lao PDR
 Positive legal and cultural
conditions for recognizing
women’s rights
 Only men participated in
community information
meetings
 Language of form (household
head)
 Cultural practice of deferring
to men in public situations
 Prior documentation mostly
handled by men
Photo by Sue Nichols
Intervention
 Lao Women’s Union
took an active role
 Information
dissemination
 Education about rights
and responsibilities of
land rights
 Meetings with village
women only (timing
important)
Photo by Sue Nichols
(4) Legal Capacity
 Information plus
access to formal and
informal institutions
 Community
mobilization (Uganda)
 Direct legal assistance
 Paralegals (Rwanda)
Global Lessons
 Vulnerable Groups
must participate in
all stages of effort
 Incentives for broad
stakeholder support
and involvement
 Gain legitimacy via
support from local
leaders
Global Lessons, cont.
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Customary law matters
Work with traditional
dispute resolution
actors
Regulations Matter
Pilot models which can
be replicated