The Gender Monitoring Office (GMO) has observed that there was respect of gender principles in the ongoing land registration exercise .

The disclosure was made yesterday by Eugenie Kabagema , Deputy Chief Gender Monitor, during the consultative workshop on the respect of gender principles in the land registration process.

The meeting brought together gender monitoring stakeholders, civil society and officials from the National Land Centre (NLC).

"We are very happy with the way women and men are getting land equally during the land registration procedure without gender based injustices and violence, "she said.

Kabagema emphasised that the current land law gives equal rights to both men and women in terms of access, ownership and land use.

"Land is vital to every person and respecting gender equality during land registration is of paramount importance to the community,” she noted.

The Deputy Chief Gender Monitor observed that although gender is being respected in land registration, much is needed to address the challenge of illegal marriages.
She called for more dialogue to enable communities understand their rights and responsibilities, including the importance of empowering and protecting women and children.

Didier Sagashya, Deputy Director General of NLC said that, they still face a challenge of women not being aware or understand their rights to land.

"Over 60 percent of women in the country have registered their land with our centre but we would like the civil society organisations to assist in awareness campaign so that women understand their rights,” he added.

Sagashya mentioned that when registering land, they normally face disputes among polygamous families and land inheritance issues in families.

He urged the GMO, stakeholders and the civil society to assist rural women to sort out land inheritance issues which sabotage the registration process.

Donat Gatete, a participant from Rusizi District, said that some people are still ignorant of the right to inheritance provided by the Rwandan legislation that grants equal rights to women and men to inherit equally their parents’ properties.

"Dialogues at the community level should be encouraged to sensitise the masses to know their rights on land issues,” he noted.

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