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Women’s Land and Property Rights

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:

Precedent cases:

BotswanaNewsWomen’s Land and Property Rights

MEDIA ADVISORY: BOTSWANA HIGH COURT TO DETERMINE WHETHER LAW ALLOWS THE COMPULSORY ACQUISITION OF A TRIBE’S FREEHOLD LAND

19 March 2021 - On 22 March 2021, the High Court of Botswana will hear a counter-application brought by the Ba-Ga-Malete Tribe, represented by Kgosi Mosadi Seboko, and the Gamalete Development Trust, against the Malete Land Board and the Attorney General. The application relates to a long-standing dispute between the…
Staff Writer
19 Mar 2021
Articles and OpinionsWomen’s Land and Property RightsZambia

A new dawn for the protection of the rights of vulnerable communities with unregistered land in Zambia

Commonwealth Lawyers Association 26 June 2020 Brigadier Siachitema In a recent decision of the High Court for Zambia, a community of displaced Zambian villagers succeeded in a land dispute against commercial farmers, the local authority, and the Zambian government. The decision sets an important precedent protecting the rights of vulnerable…
Staff Writer
7 Jul 2020
JudgmentsWomen’s Land and Property RightsZambia

Zambia: Challenging the displacement of communities from customary land in the Serenje District

The Muchinda Royal Establishment, the Zambia Land Alliance and SALC supported a displaced community who is currently residing in Musangashi Forest Reserve after they were violently displaced from their ancestral land in Mulembo, near Mulembo River (now called Billis Farm Limited) in the Serenje District of the Central Province of…
Staff Writer
4 May 2020
Research Reports & Policy BriefsSexual and Reproductive Health RightsWomen’s Land and Property RightsZimbabwe

Policy Brief: The Recognition of Customary Marriages In Zimbabwe And The Proposed Marriages Bill

The Zimbabwe Marriage Bill, 2019 was gazetted and released for public comment on 19 July 2019. The Bill proposes to amend  the law governing marriage in Zimbabwe, in order to  consolidate the different laws and to align the law with the Constitution. This policy brief seeks to analyse the proposed…
Tambudzai Gonese
3 Sep 2019