Women whose property or inheritance rights are violated have a right to an effective
remedy, without discrimination, as guaranteed in various international treaties. In its
General Recommendation on the Rights of Older Women in 2010, the CEDAW Committee
observed that “States parties should enable older women to seek redress for and resolve
infringements of their rights, including the right to administer property.”136
It further observed that older widows are particularly vulnerable to property grabbing, and
stated that:
States parties must repeal all legislation that discriminates against older
widows in respect of property and inheritance and protect them from land
grabbing. They must adopt laws of intestate succession that comply with
their obligations under the Convention. Furthermore, they should take
measures to end practices that force older women to marry against their
will and should ensure that succession is not conditioned on forced
marriage to a deceased husband’s sibling or any other person.137
Women often face significant challenges accessing justice and remedies. CEDAW’s General
Recommendation on Access to Justice highlights the negative impacts of concentrations of
courts in cities.138 Its General Recommendation on the Rights of Older Women notes that:
Older women living in rural areas or urban slums often suffer a severe lack
of basic resources for subsistence, income security, access to healthcare
and information on and enjoyment of their entitlements and rights.139
136 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, “General recommendation No. 27 on older women and
protection of their human rights,” para. 314.
137 Ibid., para. 52
138 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, “General recommendation on women’s access to
justice,” U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/33, July 23, 2013,
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/1_Global/CEDAW_C_GC_33_7767_E.pdf (accessed July
29, 2016), para.13.
139 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, “General recommendation No. 27 on older women and
protection of their human rights,” para. 12.
47
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JANUARY 2017
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