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COHRE Women and Housing Rights Programme: ISSUE BRIEF EIGHT

Women’s Housing Rights in theContext of HIV/AIDS................1The Scale and Scope of theGlobal HIV/AIDS Pandemic....2Human Rights Standards...........4HIV/AIDS and HousingSecurity for Women and Girls.....6Securing Women’s HousingRights ........................................8Taking a Closer Look atWomen’s Housing Rights ........10

Contents

Women and Housing Rights

ISSUE BRIEF

When women’s housing rights are respectedand protected – including when women and girlsare able to inherit and control housing, land andproperty – women and girls are better able to copewith the detrimental effects of HIV/AIDS.Because housing security leads to better livingconditions, access to livelihood and access to

Women’s Housing Rights inthe Context of HIV/AIDS

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The Scale and Scope of the

education, women and girls areoften better able to mitigate thenegative personal and financialimpact of HIV/AIDS.Furthermore, a secure home andall that comes with it enhancespersonal autonomy and reducesmany of the risk factorsassociated with HIV/AIDS.Critically, for women, therealisation of housing and landrights may actually preventHIV/AIDS transmission incertain cases by reducingdependency and enhancingpersonal autonomy. On the otherhand, repressive norms andtraditional practices, gender-based bias and inability to access

property generate and sustaincircumstances leading towomen’s susceptibility toHIV/AIDS infection.

According to UN-AIDS, women com-prise over 50 per centof the total number ofHIV/AIDS infectedindividuals, yet glo-

bally they possess under 15 percent of the world’s land, andabout 1 to 2 per cent of land ti-tles. In certain States, girls aremuch more vulnerable to HIVinfection than boys. Certain cate-gories of women are also particu-larly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS

As UNAIDS, UNFPA andUNIFEM have noted

“HIV/AIDS is nolonger strikingprimarily men. Today,more than 20 yearsinto the epidemic,women account for

nearly half of the 40 millionpeople living with HIVworldwide. In Sub-SaharanAfrica, 57 per cent of adults withHIV are women and youngwomen aged 15 to 24 are morethan three times as likely to be

infected as young men. Despitethis alarming trend, women knowless than men about howHIV/AIDS is transmitted andhow to prevent infection, andwhat little they do know if oftenrendered useless by thediscrimination and violence theyface.”

Gender discrimination too oftenprecludes women from realisingtheir housing, land and propertyrights on an equal basis withmen. In the Sub-Sahara Africa,for example, this inequality is

Why GenderMatters in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS

The DevastatingGlobal Impact ofHIV/AIDS

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Global HIV/AIDS Pandemic

fuelled by negative culturalpractices and beliefs whichreinforce women’s subordinateposition within their societies.Women are callously evictedfrom their homes and renderedhomeless, often at the hands oftheir own family members andin-laws, through a cruel, oftenviolent practice known as‘disinheritance.’ They are evictedprimarily because they are women,and as such they cannot claim,own or possess property in theirown right. This reality is furtherperpetuated by weak and ‘gender-neutral’ institutions and policieswhich too often turn a blind eyetowards women’s plight.

-The Global Coalition onWomen and AIDS

infection, such as impoverishedwomen, sex workers, minoritygroups, refugees and theinternally displaced.

One of the greatest obstaclesHIV/AIDS infected womenconfront is their inability tosecure property. Women’sinability to possess and manageproperty may result in their

impoverishment, particularly incultures which have a propensityto humiliate or shun HIV/AIDSinfected women and girls.

Destitution and homelessness attimes lead women and girls toengage in perilous conduct bytrading sex for their continuedexistence (i.e. sex for pecuniarypurposes as well as housing). Inmany cases, subsequent to theHIV/AIDS related deaths ofmale partners or disclosure oftheir HIV/AIDS status, womenare divested of their maritalproperty, livelihoods, and at timeseven their children, by relativeswho forcibly evict them fromtheir homes.

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Human Rights Standards: Protecting

The human rights dimensionsof HIV/AIDS are well known.The UN-General Assemblynoted that ‘‘the full realisation ofhuman rights and fundamentalfreedoms for all is an essentialelement in a global response tothe HIV/AIDS pandemic.” TheInternational Guidelines onHIV/AIDS recognise that theHIV/AIDS pandemic “begetshuman rights violations such asfurther discrimination andviolence.”

As the United Nations has alsonoted, having “access to and

control over housing, land andother property acquires particularurgency for HIV-positive womenor widows and children orphanedby AIDS.”

To reverse this cycle, theinternational community hasrecognised that countries mustprotect “women’s rights to, interalia, legal capacity and equality

Human Rights andHIV/AIDS

Women bear a disproportionatepart of the AIDS burden. Notonly are women more likely thanmen to be infected with HIV, buttheir daily workloads are heavier –including care of children and thesick – and gender discriminationresults in women beingdisproportionately poor andunable to prevent or mitigate theconsequences of the disease.

Because the HIV/AIDS pandemicis itself fuelled by genderdiscrimination and inequality, theinternational community has cometo acknowledge that improving the

status of women is a critical task inthe global fight against HIV/AIDS.

Indisputably, access to housing andland has become one of the biggestchallenges for women affected orinfected by the disease. It isperhaps not surprising that thewomen COHRE interviewedviewed access to adequate housingas key to their attainment of peace,dignity and security. And, what’smore, they identified access tohousing as an essential element inthe prevention and treatment ofHIV/AIDS among women.

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Human Rights Standards: Protecting

Women’s Rights in the Context of HIV/AIDS

within the family, in matters suchas divorce, inheritance, childcustody and property,” thusempowering women to terminaterelationships and work that makethem vulnerable to HIVinfection.

The United Nations Committeeon the Elimination ofDiscrimination Against Womenhas also noted that there aremany countries where the lawand practice concerning‘inheritance’ and property resultin serious discrimination againstwomen. As a result of thisuneven treatment, women mayreceive a smaller share of the

the husband’s or father’s propertyat his death than would widowersand sons. In some instances,women are granted limited andcontrolled rights and receiveincome only from the deceased’sproperty. Often ‘inheritance’ rightsfor widows do not reflect theprinciples of equal ownership of

property acquiredduring marriage.

Such provisionscontravene

international human rightsstandards and should be abolished.This sentiment has been echoed byother international human rightsbodies, including the HumanRights Committee and the formerUnited Nations Commission onHuman Rights.

Regional instruments can alsobe invoked to protect women’s

housing, land andproperty rights.

For example, theProtocol to the

African Charter on Human andPeoples’ Rights on the Rights ofWomen in Africa provides thatwomen are entitled to obtaintheir personal property and tocontrol it without restraint.Should there be dissolution ofthe marriage, both spouses

“shall have the right to anequitable sharing of the jointproperty deriving from themarriage.”

Article 21 guarantees that: “Awidow shall have the right to anequitable share in the inheritanceof the property of her husband.A widow shall have the right tocontinue to live in thematrimonial house. In case ofremarriage, she shall retain thisright if the house belongs to heror she has inherited it.”

RegionalHuman Rights Standards and Statements

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HIV/AIDS and Housing Security for Women and Girls:

In rural and urban areas alike,housing and land are essentialresources for helping families to

move out of poverty,or to otherwise meettheir daily economicchallenges. The vastmajority of women,however, can have

their housing and land rightsviolated with impunity, duenorms and practices whichdiscriminate against them.Women living with, or affectedby, HIV/AIDS are even more

vulnerable to discrimination andhardship. The death of spousesand other family memberssuffering from AIDS impacts onthe social and economic status ofwomen. For example, womenthroughout Africa, living withHIV, or losing a husband to thedisease, has become a commonprecursor to property-grabbing(i.e. ‘disinheritance’) and furtherimpoverishment. Indeed, it isoften during the most critical time– when women are struggling tocope with the health affects of thedisease on themselves and lovedones – that many women facetheir most formidable housingrights challenges.

Amidst caring for the sick, fortheir children, and for the clear-ance of debts incurred by trying to

COHRE’s research has shownthat poor women living in urbanslums already face housingchallenges, and HIV/AIDSaggravates their problems. Forexample, women interviewed byCOHRE in Ghana, Kenya andUganda pointed at unaffordablerent and discrimination in theslums, make coping with thedisease very difficult. Womenliving with HIV also reportdiscrimination at the hands ofunscrupulous landlords who

sometimes refuse to rent themeven a paltry shack in the slums.

Women who have beendispossessed of theirhomes in the ruralareas also add to thenumber of thoseliving in slums andinformal settlements.

Once there, women find difficultto scrape together rent payments,even for the most meagre ofaccommodations.

Women,Urbanisationand Slums within the Context of HIV/AIDS

Women’s ‘Inheritance’Rights within theContext ofHIV/AIDS

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Understanding the Connections

United Nations Committee on theRights of the Child underscored“the necessity ofproviding legal,economic and socialprotection to affectedchildren to ensure theiraccess to education, inheritance,shelter and health and socialservices.”

The Committee also has appealedto States to ensure that both lawand practice support theinheritance and property rights oforphans, with particular attentionto the underlying gender-baseddiscrimination.

cope with the economic impactsof the disease, women must alsocope with losing that whichsustains them the most – theirhomes and their lands. For awoman who has been stripped ofher home and her land, theensuing economic hardships maymake it difficult for her to accesslife-saving medical treatment, letalone justice for the housing rightsviolations she has endured.

Inheritance rights are of greatimportance to girl children, who inmany cases are unable to inheritequally with their brothers, despitethe fact that inheritance rights arevital to their well-being andsecurity.

Not surprisingly, international datashows that orphans tend to live inpoorer households thannon-orphans. In its GeneralComment No. 3 on HIV/AIDSand the rights of the child, the

-Testimony provided toCOHRE by a woman from

Western Kenya

The Housing Rightsof Girls in the Contextof HIV/AIDS

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Securing Women’s Housing Rights: A Key Strategy

States should review theirexisting national HIV/AIDSstrategies to integrate a humanrights-based approach toaddressing the spread and multi-faceted affects of the disease.Mainstreaming human rights intonational AIDS reductionstrategies will require governmentmove beyond issues ofprevention, treatment and care toaddressing human rightsviolations that bear implicationson effective HIV/AIDSprevention and reduction

Security of tenure in housing andland gives women the ability to

prevent property-grabbing andboost their economic potential.For rural women, access to landis synonymous with foodproduction as well as incomegeneration. Security of tenure isimperative for women are tomitigate the devastating effectsof HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Ensuring aGender Perspective

Within the context of HIV/AIDS, securing women’s housing andland rights is a critical Gender discriminatorynorms and traditional practices which limit or preclude women’saccess to housing, land and property, both generates and sustainsthe dire circumstances which underlie women’s disproportionate

susceptibility to HIV infection. While women’s enjoyment of theirright to adequate housing is clearly threatened in situations of

gender inequality, the good news is that when this right is properlyprotected, it can fundamentally uplift women’s status and lessen the

devastating impacts of HIV/AIDS.

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in the Global Fight Against HIV/AIDS

States should reform, enactand/ or implement laws thatpromote gender equality inaccessing, controlling and owninghousing and land. States should

also support reformsand law enforcementthat strengthen theprotection of widowsand children’s propertyrights. Many customary

laws on ‘inheritance,’ landdistribution, divorce settlementand rights in marriage discriminateagainst women and girl child. Yetthese practices in many countriesincluding those with positive

gender equality laws tend tooverride the statutory laws. Thismust change and deserves urgentaction and political will.

States should also ensure equalprotection between men andwomen, regardless of maritalstatus. In addition, States shouldensure that national legislationguarantee that daughters and sonsare able to inherit equally viaintestate succession. Nationallegislation must also recognise thatwomen are able to own propertyindependently, and on an equalbasis, with men, and that ‘fullcommunity of property’ is thedefault. Legislation should alsoprovide for the joint titling ofassets between spouses, includinghousing and land.

States should increase andstrengthen access to justice bywomen living or affected byHIV/AIDS, including thecreation of special courts, policeunits and legal aide on women’shousing, land and propertyrights related violations. Suchlegal avenues and assistanceshould be made fully accessibleto women, includingeconomically accessible. Justicesystems must ensure that womenare able to have their maritalproperty restored to them in

cases of ‘disinheritance’ orproperty-grabbing.

States should also design and im-plement extensive education andsensitisation programmes spe-cially targeted at women in allsegments of society and geo-graphical areas, especially ruralareas, where rights awareness isusually minimal.

All women should be made awarenot only of their rights, but alsohow to claim and enforce them.

ProvidingAccess to Justice

Protecting Women’sRights

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Taking a Closer Look at Women’s

The population of Kenya isabout 31 million, withapproximately half between 15-49years of age. Over 2 millionpeople within that same agebracket are living with HIV. Ofthis number, most are women,who constitute 61 per cent ofKenya’s adult population infectedwith the virus.

Women in Kenya sufferdisproportionately when HIVstrikes. The financial burdenscaused by the disease forcefamilies to sell off their propertyin order to meet the costs oftreatment. The system of‘inheritance’ also disadvantageswomen.

With males as the focus and mainbeneficiaries of the matrilinealsystem of inheritance, womenoften do not have property theycan call their own, to manage anddispose of as they wish. To makematters worse, harassment andaccusations by family andcommunity members that awidow caused the death of herhusband, or infected him withHIV, puts added pressure on herto leave the matrimonial home.

Marginalisation and ostracisationof widows constrains their abilityto use land access credits andother financial resources for theirown benefit.

One Woman’sStory

Kenya

- Testimony provided to COHRE bya widow from Southern Uganda

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Housing Rights within the Context of HIV/AIDS

Women in Uganda have ahigher prevalence of HIVinfection across all age categories.Among those aged 15-19 years,women are about nine timesmore likely to be infected withHIV than their malecounterparts. From interviews ofwomen with different ethnicbackground, COHRE gatheredthat a myriad of women’shousing, land and property rightsviolations, including thosesuffered by women living withHIV, continue unabated acrosscommunities.

COHRE’s mission is toensure the full enjoyment ofthe human right to adequate

housing for everyone,everywhere, including

preventing forced evictions ofpersons, families and

communities from theirhomes or lands.

Ghana is one of the countrieswith lowest HIV/AIDS infectionrates in West Africa, with about260 000 living with the disease,about 150 000 of whom arewomen. Although this figureshows a decline in the diseasecompared to 2001 statistics,women in Ghana – like elsewherein Africa – continue to bedisproportionately affected by thedisease.

Women living with HIV/AIDSin Ghana suffer sharply thestigma surrounding the pandemic,which affects their housingsituation. Women in Ghanaroutinely reported hiding theirHIV status, and facing forcedeviction by landlords, and‘disinheritance’ at the hands ofin-laws.

Stigma in Ghana is especiallyacute. Some HIV-positivewomen in Ghana interviewed byCOHRE noted that they couldnot live and mix freely withcommunity and family members.

Uganda

Ghana

About UsTaking a Closer Look at Women’s

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The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE)Women and Housing Rights Progtamme

83 rue de Montbrillant1202 Geneva, Switzerland

Phone: +41.22.734.1028 · Fax:+41.22.733.8336 · Email: women@cohre.orgwww.cohre.org/women