Africa: Bringing equality home: promoting and protecting the inheritance rights of women

In this report, the COHRE Women and Housing Rights Programme (WHRP) documents the fact that under both statutory and customary law, the overwhelming majority of women in sub-Saharan Africa – regardless of their marital status – cannot own or inherit land, housing and other property in their own right. Instead, in respect of access to land and housing, women are made entirely dependant on their relationship to a male. The paper reviews the legislation and administrative policies in relation to land, housing and inheritance rights in ten sub-Saharan African countries: Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.