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A gender analysis of agrarian laws in Zimbabwe: A Report
Women and Land in Zimbabwe
July 2002

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Background to the study
Women and Land in Zimbabwe, a Non-Governmental Organisation whose objectives include the promotion of women’s rights to land, has commission this study. The study seeks to provide a gender analysis of the current agrarian laws in Zimbabwe. A list of the specific laws to be analyzed is attached to this report as "Appendix A".

The study is being carried out at a critical time in Zimbabwe’s history when the Government of Zimbabwe has embarked on a land reform and redistribution programme which seeks to redress past imbalances, specifically racial imbalances, in land ownership in Zimbabwe. It is important that this process does not exclude women. One of the ways of ensuring that women are not excluded from this process and from accessing and owning land and other agrarian resources in general is to ensure that there is a legal framework which is responsive to the needs of women.

Unfortunately the ensuing report, reveals that the current legal framework has several shortcomings as far as provision of women’s rights to land and other agrarian resources is concerned. Suggestions for appropriate law reform are made to remedy these shortcomings.

Conceptual framework and delimitation
This report focuses on several key concepts, which need definition for the avoidance of doubt. There is also need to demarcate its limits.

One of the major concepts that require definition for the purpose of this report is the concept of gender. Gender in this report is used to denote the socially constructed roles ascribed to men and women in Zimbabwean society. However, in the context of this report, there is a presumption that these roles are discriminatory against women i.e the women are being subjected to gender-based discrimination. This presumption is based on the writer’s knowledge of the historical and socio-cultural context in which men and women live in Zimbabwe. In this report the presumption of gender-based discrimination against women is specifically applied to the context of women’s rights to land and other agrarian resources hence the gender analysts of the relevant laws is mainly a critique of the laws highlighting their discriminatory nature in so far as women’s rights to land and other agrarian resources are concerned.

The other concept, which requires definition, is the concept of law. Law can be broadly defined to include both the law which is officially recognized by the state and that which, though not recognized, is nevertheless enforced and observed by various institutions and

communities such as families, churches and neighborhoods. This report will concentrate on officially recognized laws.

Officially recognized laws in Zimbabwe can be divided into three (3) categories namely statutory law, common law and customary law. Statutory law refers to laws that are made by Parliament. Common law refers to the laws that were adopted in Zimbabwe at colonization. In Zimbabwe the common law is based on the Roman-Dutch common law system. Customary law refers to the laws that are based on the customs and practices of the indigenous people of Zimbabwe. These three categories are inter-connected. For example, a statute may provide that customary law is to apply in a certain situation such as allocation of land. However, the focus of this report is the statutory laws particularly those listed in "Appendix A".

Although there are several regulations made under the various statutes, this report will not analyse these. This is because the substantive provisions of the legislation are contained in the Acts and not in the regulations. Regulations are just procedural guidelines. The focus of this report is on laws that relate to women's rights to land for agricultural purposes. It also looks at laws that deal with access to water for agricultural purposes and to natural resources on land.

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