Publication: Arguing traditions: Denying Kenya's Women Access to Land Rights
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Date
2010-01
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2010-01
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Two major approaches on how to address women's land security can be identified: reforming the formal legal sector, and embracing informal community practices. However, through research conducted among Kenya's agricultural communities, the authors find that these systems formal, informal, or hybrid are underpinned (and undermined) by the same local power dynamics that control and ultimately prevent women from obtaining land, leaving all of these systems inadequate in ensuring women's access to land. Community leaders play a key role not only as local power brokers, decision makers, and protectors of local practices, but also as gatekeepers to the formal system. Thus, their decisions to support local power dynamics and limit access to the formal system essentially supporting traditions? in lieu of rights can effectively deny women access to their land rights. Based on these findings, the authors argue that the policy debate must shift away from pitting formal legislative approaches against support for 'customary' systems. With economic and political contexts influencing individuals, the debate must look at the social context within communities, whose members must be pressed to reject attempts to 'hijack' custom and legitimize abusive, self-serving behavior. This problem needs to be tackled using the same avenues that currently promote the marginalization of women, that is, the sociocultural value systems that determine which behavior, arguments, and actions are legitimate in a community. By working with existing positive values, the justice system used formal or informal becomes less important and a lasting, positive change on women's access to land rights might be achieved.
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“Harrington, Andrew; Chopra, Tanja. 2010. Arguing traditions: Denying Kenya's Women Access to Land Rights. Justice for the Poor Research Report;No. 2. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30531 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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