Land Rights Advocacy for women heads of households

The project through vigorous land advocacy promoted the protection of the right to land for widows and orphans. Community members on a voluntary basis formed CLAPS to help mediate, educate and solve land cases for widows and other women in the community. The project is implemented in Pader, Kole and Dokolo districts.

Outcome: Property and inheritance cases reported by widows and orphans successfully settled by Community Facilitators (paralegals), law enforcement officers, local government officers and community leaders.

72 Community Facilitators (CLAPS) have been recruited and have been facilitated with bicycles for easy of movement. They work with partners and the Association of Women’s Lawyers and the Local Government to increase access to justice for women and orphaned children. Mobile clinic sessions are conducted. Topics covered will include children’s and women’s rights and responsibilities, laws on marriage, divorce, inheritance rights and defilements. They will also cover the duties of the different persons charged with protecting children’s rights. In addition, the action provides legal services, counseling and conduct legal awareness sessions. This enables women and children as heads of families’ access to land and they are able to use it without fearing that it would be confiscated and this will benefit their farming activities.

Some of the bicycles given to the Community Legal Aid Providers (CLAPS)

In Pader district the trendof land grabs have been registered highly and it’s the most occurring land dispute followed by boundary and trespass. Training of clan leaders, CLAPS and LCs has created broad awareness by FAPAD on land law has greatly helped mediation.

Six parishes broken down as follows;

• 20 cases have been resolved
• 23 cases have not been resolved yet
• 8 cases have been referred.

Trend of land disputes by Parish since September 2013 – December 2013

In Kole district the period of September2013-February 2014, the branch had a total of 17 land disputes that had been recorded in 5 parishes broken down as follows;

• 10 cases have been resolved
• 3 cases have not been resolved yet
• 4 cases have been referred.

Land advocacy officer training the core implementing structures on land rights , legal framework and their roles and responsibilities in project implementation.		TAOU in collaboration with FAPAD training the core structures( Clan leaders, LCs, Parish chiefs and the CLAPS ) on understanding of land rights of women and children. Land laws land dispute resolutions.		Community legal Aids providers (CLAPS) of Kole, Ayer Sub county receive bicycles from TAOU to aid them in carrying out activities in an attempt to eradicate land dispute in the community.
		Land advocacy officer conducting Community sensitization in Agwaya village, Abur Parish Ayer Sub-county on constitutional rights of women and children , acquisition of land titles and certificates of title.		TAOU in partnership with FAPAD conducting Visioning workshop to 90 women in Ayer sub county to enable them envision their objectives for land righs and identify how they can achieve their land rights.

In Dokolo district, the Land Advocacy Project in Agwata Sub County was launched way back in August 2013 among other challenges included the Politico-cultural perception on land issues in the area. Within the area, the inception of new organizations implementing land matters has never been easy since the locals looked at such organizations as Government agents aimed at land grabbing, promoting women’s right and power to breach their cultural norms, et al.

This however was a blessing in offing, where TAOU identified; trained and facilitated Community Legal Aid provides (CLAPS) with Training Guide and bicycles to help in the inception, implementation and sustaining of the Project within the local community.

Barely 10 months down the road in project implementation the project have gained total acceptance, smooth implementation and overwhelming support from cultural and political leaders.

The CLAPS have been centre of mobilization of the community for trainings, community sensitization, collection of new cases and mobilization for land conflict resolution, amidst constant supervision.

This is evidenced by open praises and testimonies by the community, local leaders and key stake holders in the Sub county during trainings, community sensitizations, workshops and radio programs as shown is above. This is such a big achievement and a core of the project component which cannot go unnoticed; however more motivation packages should be tailored to enhance the capacity of CLAPS in consolidating the achievements above and ensure project sustainability.