Rwanda Women's Network Location

1 RWANDA WOMEN’S NETWORK1 ASSERTING WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS Name: Rwanda Women’s Network Location: Eastern Rwanda Year of foundation: 1997 Contact: Annette Mukiga E-Mail: [email protected] 1 Prepared by Justine Mirembe, in collaboration with Peninah Abatoni, Mary Balikungeri, Elisabetta Cangelosi, Annette Mukiga, Sabine Pallas, Viviana Sacco and the group of women and paralegals of the Polyclinic of Hope in Bugesera. 2 The Context Rwanda Women’s Network (RWN) is a national non-governmental organization working in Rwanda since 1997 when it took over from its parent organization-Church World Service. RWN was established with the mission of promoting and improving the socio-economic welfare of women in Rwanda. Its main administrative offices are located in Gasabo district “village of Hope” - Kigali City but RWN has also established 4 spaces/centers (Polyclinics of Hope) for women in the districts of Gatsibo, Nyarugenge and Bugesera. RWN began with a program of promoting women’s rights to land, housing and inheritance specifically targeting victims of rape and other violent crimes largely perpetuated during the 1994 genocide against Tutsi, as well as vulnerable homeless women returnees after the war. The current population of Rwanda stands at more than 11 million people, over 80% of whom depend on agriculture. With a surface area of 26.338 square kilometer for 11 million people, Rwanda’s population density stands at more than 416 inhabitants per square kilometer (Rwanda Demographic profile, 2013), making it a densely populated country. Gender wise, women constitute more than 53% of the adult population and 50% of these are widows. Partially because of the genocide, the 34% of all households in Rwanda are headed by women. Also, women constitute over 50% of the Rwandan population infected by HIV (Rwanda Demographic profile, 2013). These statistics show that land is an important property that most of Rwandese rely on for a living and must therefore be safeguarded and protected with an aim of increasing its productivity for general interests and sustainable development. Bugesera District The District of Bugesera is one of the seven (7) Districts of the Eastern Province of RWANDA. It is situated to the South West of the Province, between 3005 of longitude and 2009 of latitude South and covering a surface of 1337 Km2 Its capital is Nyamata. Bugesera district is among the districts that have relatively a high mean size of land cultivated (in the interval of >0.75-0.97 ha) but still have a high percentage (71%) of cultivating households that cultivate under 0.9 ha of land. 69% of households in Bugesera district have been exposed to the Land Tenure Regularisation programme. This proportion is 54.1% country-wide on average. The 78.4% of all households in Bugesera district raise some type of livestock, ranking the eighth district nationally on this indicator. This percentage is slightly above the national level with 68.2 % (Rwanda National Institute of Statistics,2011). The district is the location of two memorial sites of the Rwandan Genocide: the Ntarama Genocide Memorial Site and the Nyamata 3 Genocide Memorial Site. There are many victims of genocide in the area and Rwanda government is planning to build an international airport in the area, all these reasons have attracted many land buyers in the area. The community especially women and other vulnerable groups need to have secure land rights. Land and land tenure Women in Rwanda as in other African countries face numerous cultural, customary, economic, legal and social constraints that hinder them from accessing land and other property. Discriminatory laws and practices regarding land coupled with land scarcity in Rwanda have stifled women’s land rights and impacted negatively on female-headed households. Today, the government of Rwanda has passed laws granting women equal land and other property inheritance like those of men thereby overturning traditional norms that favoured males. Examples of such laws are the land law of 2013, succession law, 1999, Gender Based Violence law and the Constitution, 2003 as amended to date. Challenges Low literacy rates for women which stand at 36%, conspire with high poverty and ignorance levels of women to limit women’s capacity to assert their rights to inherit, access and control land. This situation is worsened by high population growth and density, limited agricultural land and over dependency on subsistence agriculture by over 80% of the total population majority of these women. What can we learn from RWN? 1. To understand specific strategies used in securing land rights for the vulnerable women; 2. To explore the key role of community paralegals in securing women’s land rights; 3. Understand the importance of creating spaces for women as a means to sharing their experiences and understanding their needs related to their land rights; 4. Understand partnerships with different actors as an advocacy tool; 5. To identify barriers in settling land disputes, which involve women. Rwanda Women’s Network vision and trajectory RWN’s vision is for a healthy, empowered and peaceful Rwandese society. In addition to other interventions RWN, contributes to the protection and promotion of women’s rights to land, property and inheritance in order to achieve its vision. RWN programs are based on women driven initiatives and ideas through the following activities. 4 RWN Activities 1. Creation of Spaces for Women The first space/centre was created in 1997 when RWN was born. This was a space where women met and discussed their own issues including land issues. Most of those women were left by their families without land or shelter after the 1994 genocide against Tutsis. RWN targeted victims of genocide, widows, HIV/AIDS victims, and poor women. These spaces are important assets for organizing, strategizing and solidarity building for women. The Polyclinic of Hope in general has proved replicable as RWN is currently running 4 centers in Rwanda and the main lessons that the centers emphasize are related to: Space for women organizing, Women driven and women led change, Community resource persons e.g. the community paralegals helping women to deal with their own issues and Social and economic empowerment as a prerequisite to bettering women’s lives. 2. Mapping and Documentation In efforts to secure women’s land rights, RWN provides information and data on women’s land rights and inheritance through conducting research, documenting the findings, as well as sharing these findings with other stakeholders including women themselves, communities, partner groups, local authorities, women councillors and others. Mapping activities include community focus group discussions to assist grassroots women and community based groups to identify and document issues concerning land, housing, inheritance, HIV/AIDS, GBV and gender equality and also map out strategies. Sharing information through workshops, research reports, training materials have changed people’s behaviour and attitude towards securing women’s land rights. RWN shares information and starts programs based on evidence. 3. Local to Local Dialogue Women engage in a dialogue with local leaders and negotiate development issues of their concern to influence policies, plans and programs in ways that address women’s priorities. They are given space and encouraged to speak out It is easy for women to make use of other and contribute to finding solutions to their existing structures and government programs problems. when they are together in cooperatives or associations. These centers are meeting places 4. Community Paralegal Program for women to discuss their issues. RWN will be This activity is aimed at building capacity for bringing Members of parliament to discuss with women and communities to solve their women at parents evening forum (Mary problems. Paralegals are trained and are Balikungeri Director and founder of RWN). given basic legal knowledge that facilitates them to provide legal aid to victims of land 5 rights, orient, monitor, as well as accompany victims and report human rights violations to the respective authorities. In addition, RWN has developed specific training modules/materials to paralegals, which they apply when educating the community on their rights. 5. Public Awareness Raising Capacity building activities for women, Giving women knowledge and skills on communities and institutions which have the their rights and human rights in general role in protecting women’s rights to land, property and inheritance are among the and the justice system are crucial. It core activities for RWN to ensure securing gives women capacity and confidence to women’s land rights and inheritance. RWN fight for and assert their rights. has taken a holistic approach to improving the welfare of vulnerable women. In this approach, other cross-cutting themes such as good governance, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, family planning, gender equality, fight against Gender Based Violence and income generating activities, are addressed during the training. 6. The Link between Women’s Land and Inheritance Rights, Gender Based Violence and HIV/AIDS Vulnerability. In its holistic approach, RWN believes that empowering women to secure their land rights reduces their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. The more economically vulnerable women are, the more likely it is for them to engage in risky behaviours such prostitution in order to earn a living. This increases their chances of being infected with HIV/AIDS. 7. Exchange Learning Exchange learning is another activity organised and facilitated by RWN. This is aimed at reinforcing women’s knowledge, capacities and means used in solving women’s issues that emerge as a result of lack of respect for women’s land rights, ignorance, and lack of confidence to speak out their mind. Women are facilitated to share experiences, knowledge transfer and discuss best practices as well as challenges and lessons learnt. Peer exchanges can be at local, national or international level. Through these exchanges, women have become agents of change.

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