Assessing Impacts of Women’s Dispossession from Land and Home

In far too many contexts around the world, women have been especially subjected to dispossession from their lands and homes. Through this project, HLRN has supported and trained member organizations and local communities in Kenya, Uganda, and India to implement tools and techniques that quantify and document the full costs, losses and damages arising from violations of women’s rights to access, use and control land for housing and subsistence. The project seeks to apply international human rights norms as the normative framework for the enumeration of consequences from violations/deprivation and support local strategies to realize women’s land rights and appropriate remedies for violations and deprivation. Combining local empowerment, knowledge creation, research and documentation the project is intended to support women’s housing and land rights advocacy in international forums.

HLRN, through Phase One of the Women’s Dispossession from Land and Home project, has produced literature reviews, training materials, case studies and workshop reports. Partner organizations in each of the three Phase One countries (Kenya, Uganda and India) have applied HLRN’s Violation Impact Assessment Tool (VIAT) to new women-focused cases, with a newly genderized version of the VIAT, whereby women determine their values at stake. Phase Two of the project will see similar trainings and assessments carried out with partner organizations in Zimbabwe and Zambia.