Effect of Formalization of Rural Women’s Land Rights in a Plural Justice System: The Case of the Sidama Regional State

Abstract

Joint land registration and certification program has been introduced in Ethiopia to secure rural women’s land rights through a joint titling of a husband and wife. This article examines the effect of this program in the protection of women’s land rights in the context of the plural justice system and the process of women’s choice-making among the various justice systems that exist in the Sidama regional state. The findings demonstrate that the land registration and titling process contributed to bring change in the type and frequency of cases brought before courts and in its decision by raising women’s consciousness of their land rights. It has also contributed to bringing change in some of the applicable norms in the customary justice system towards women’s inheritance rights. Rural women alternate between the formal and informal justice systems by choosing the one that best serves their interests while taking into account various factors that affect their land rights. However, the practice of polygamy, informal land transactions and the entrenched social norms that discriminate against women have made the contribution of the land certification program to be minimal and has limited the enforcement of women’s land rights in the plural justice setting.