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58 Stan. J. Int'l L. 113 (2022)
Women's Land-Related Human Rights in Mozambique: The Gap between Commitments de Jure and Local Practice

handle is hein.journals/stanit58 and id is 129 raw text is: WOMEN'S LAND-RELATED HUMAN RIGHTS IN MOZAMBIQUE: THE GAP BETWEEN COMMITMENTS DE JURE AND LOCAL PRACTICE MARIANNA BICCHIERI* Mozambique is a State Party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination Against Women, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peo- ples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. Over the last two decades, the government of Mozambique has developed legal and policy frameworks to align its legislation with core human rights instruments, promote gender equal- ity, and foster women's land rights. Mozambique has gained considerable in- ternational recognition for these important efforts. Nevertheless, high levels of gender inequality and discrimination persist. Many women do not fully enjoy fundamental human rights, especially in rural areas. Their land rights are frequently violated due to discriminatory custom- ary practices; consequently, they are denied a wide range of land-related hu- man rights such as the rights to food, shelter, and an adequate standard of liv- ing. This Article analyzes the reasons for the gap between commitments de jure, local practice, and customary norms. It describes how, in a context of legal pluralism, efforts to address gender inequality and protect women's land-re- lated human rights often fall short because of the government's inability to align and harmonize statutory and customary law. Moreover, the great divide between urban and rural realities, in a country where most of the population live in rural areas, seems to be frequently overlooked or disregarded by deci- sion makers. Consequently, legal and policy frameworks that could pave the way to enhanced gender equality are ineffective, because they remain mostly ignored by the population. Given the gap between commitments de jure, local practice, and customary norms, the Mozambican case shows that merely pass- ing legislation is insufficient to enable rural women to fully enjoy their land- related human rights. *Marianna Bicchieri is a Land Tenure Officer (Gender and Human Rights) with the Food and Ag- riculture Organization of the United Nations. She thanks Kate Wilkinson Cross, Christopher Tanner and Paolo Groppo for their invaluable comments and feedback on this article. 113 58 STAN. J. INT'L L. 113 (2022)

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