SALC’s Women’s Land and Property Rights programme has the following objectives:
- Developing jurisprudence through cases challenging discrimination in areas of inheritance; sharing and distribution of matrimonial property; legal capacity of married women; and chieftainship.
- Challenging the denial of women’s right to participate in decision-making on acquisition of land resources and developmental programmes affecting rural land and resources.
- Highlighting the particular impact of forced evictions and mining pollution on women.
On-going cases:
- Zambia: Challenging illegal deforestation and encroachment of Kasanka National Park and the Kafinda Game Management Area.
- Eswatini: Case challenging common law marital power.
- Eswatini: A challenge to the customary principle of male primogeniture.
- Zambia: Challenging the taking over of customary land and allocation to commercial farmers and the destruction of property and contamination of the environment without consent or compensation.
- Botswana: Challenging the constitutionality of the legislative scheme relating to tribal land.
- Malawi: Protecting rural women from negative impacts of the extractive industries.
- Malawi: Challenging uncompensated disturbances, damages, loss and suffering due to extensive to extensive mining and prospecting operations.
- Zambia: Preventing the displacement of rural women from their customary land.
- Zambia: Long-term rural residents declared squatters and ordered to vacate the land without fair compensation.
- Zambia: Case challenging forced eviction of communities living on customary due to infrastructure development.
- Lesotho/African Commission on Human and People’s Rights: Case on women’s right to chieftainship in Lesotho.
Precedent cases:
- Zambia: Challenging the displacement of communities from customary land in the Serenje district.
- Zimbabwe: Case challenging decision of Master to award widow a child’s share of farm acquired by couple.
- Malawi: Case challenging property grabbing of widow’s land
- Botswana: Case challenging constitutionality of customary law rule which provides for male inheritance of family home
Advocacy:
- Celebrating International women’s day (2020).
- SALC in the news: Chieftainship dispute thickens (2012).
- African Commission: African countriess urged to deepen rights culture (2010).
- Women’s property rights case to be heard by Malawi’s Constitutional court (2010).
- Eswatini: Women’s rights take one step forward, two steps back (2010).
- The bloody repercussions of the AU’s support for Al-Bashir (2009).