Paper short abstract:

Women's land rights are more than just the formal ownership of land: culture and social norms and ideologies continue to shape the gender practices and women and girls' decisional power over land is often limited within households and kinship networks in Rwanda.

Paper long abstract:

Rwanda has exhibited the willingness to promote gender equality as a priority within the past twenty-two years. Land tenure reforms have been among the innovations for gender inclusion for sustainable development. Women's land rights in Rwanda are more than just the ownership of land, due to gender practices that continue to shape the social and economic relationships within households. The objectives of this study are the following: to understand how gender practices shape decision-making processes within land tenure systems in Rwanda; to explore how the consequences of the shift from the collective land tenure system (ubukonde) to land commodification have impacted on impact gender relations in Rwanda. The methodology of this paper will include desk review of the theoretical and secondary data analysis, and also empirical data from a qualitative study on 'Compromised Property Rights? Women living in Polygamous or Informal Unions in Rwanda' conducted by the Centre for Gender Studies, at the University of Rwanda. Findings from this study reveal that some women in Rwanda are facing challenges in exercising their land rights as stipulated in the Organic Land Law No. 08/2005 as revised Law no. 43/2013. Legally married women are limited by cultural and social practices, and non-legally married women, whose power is limited by cultural and social practices and the law. This paper will highlight lessons on how land tenure systems are directly being shaped by power relations and gender practices in Rwanda.

Keywords: Rwanda, land tenure systems, gender practices, women's land rights