New land laws to give equal access to men and women

The Rwandan government will enforce new land policy and laws which will give men and women equal access to and control over land and property to ensure optimum use of land resources, the minister for lands, resettlement and environment, Laurent Nkusi, said. “Poverty eradication which is the government’s priority task cannot be successfully realised if there is no clear and secure land tenure system that makes a conscious exploitation of the little land resources available,” the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) quoted him telling a conference. “Survival of man depends on the efficient exploitation of land resources, and women as key users of land should be given control over land,” he said. He said the issue of land in Rwanda was complicated by archaic land laws which deprived women of property rights. Nkusi challenged women to voice all forms of inequality between men and women so that the draft land bill could take these inequalities into consideration.