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Insight
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| Fight for your rights: women’s ongoing struggle for equality |
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The revised Land Legislation approved by the National Assembly in November last year required that land use right certificates bear the names of both husband and wife if land belongs to both of them.
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Although law provides for joint land use right ownership, many women are unaware of their rights |
This was a further step towards gender equality, but implementation of this policy remains a challenge, especially at the local level.
“When I wake up in the morning, I am not sure whether I will be able to give my children enough to eat during the day,” says Le Thi Lua, a 38-year-old mother from Thai Binh Province. Her husband died recently and due to a dispute with the family-in-law, she has been left on her own without land to work on.
“I got married 20 years ago and worked on my husband’s land. My name wasn’t mentioned on the land use right certificate, and so I could not get a loan from the bank. Neither was the law able to help me when I had to leave the land,” she explains sadly.
“I wanted to give my children a healthy and prosperous future by having my own business, but the bank didn’t accept the land use right certificate as collateral, as it only mentioned the name of my deceased husband,” Lua said. Today, male family members overwhelmingly retain exclusive legal rights to land. According to recent government statistics, a national average of only 3 per cent of existing certificates mention a wife’s name.
Vietnamese law provides for joint land use rights, in order to prevent cases like Lua’s. The Law on Marriage and Family requires that the names of both wife and husband be mentioned on land use right certificates, as land acquired after marriage is considered to be a common asset. The revised land legislation approved by Vietnam’s National Assembly in November 2003 also requires that land certificates bear the names of both husband and wife if the land belongs to both of them. If the woman’s name is stated on the certificate, the law protects her and she maintains rights to the land in case of separation, divorce or widowhood.
Gender equality – ensuring a better world
Women’s full participation and empowerment are central to fashioning enduring solutions to society’s most threatening social, economic and political problems. As the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan notes: “Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is essential for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.”
Gender equality – when women and men enjoy equal recognition and status within society – is a key element of the Millennium Development Goals that Vietnam, together with all other countries, adopted at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000.
Every year on March 8, people everywhere join in the celebration of International Women’s Day. Originating in the early 1900s, International Women’s Day provides an opportunity to celebrate women’s achievements and contributions to society and marks how much further we need to go to ensure a better world for all women and girls. In celebrating International Women’s Day in Vietnam, the United Nations recognises the steps taken to promote and protect equal rights for women. But more is required.
Land Certificates require increased awareness
A key issue is the access to land use rights. The laws of Vietnam call for land use right certificates to bear the names of husband and wife, but actual implementation of these laws has yet to materialise.
Although the constitution and the revised land law are clear, tradition and culture often prevail. Vietnamese society still bears the deep influence of feudal, patriarchal Confucianism.
The husband is generally identified as the head of the household, and thus men usually sign the certificates, making them the sole holder of land use rights. At the local level, resistance and ignorance still exist. The all-important local officials who administer and interpret the law often revert to age-old traditions and customary practices which favour men, and thus fail to deliver on the law’s promises. The problem regarding equal rights between women and men often does not lie in the law itself, but rather in its implementation.
“My sister once briefly mentioned the possibility of having her own name on the certificate, but I never really understood. Our community has never informed us, so how could I have known?” says Lua, now trying to find a job in her village. Tradition, outdated cultural values and lack of awareness – in both women and men – of women’s right to land use explains why so few joint land use right certificates actually exist. In certain cases, this is due to low literacy, lack of fluency in the Vietnamese language or the lack of relevant information in ethnic minority languages.
Promoting greater awareness regarding land use rights and legislation implies providing simple legal explanations and outreach at community level, in both the majority Kinh and different minority languages. In addition, greater awareness of government programmes that are aimed at improving women’s lives and enhancing women’s registration on certificates is needed. The government’s drive to disseminate information must be intensified and well directed when it comes to informing different community stakeholders on women’s land law rights in order to reach gender responsive administration and effective implementation of the Land Law.
In addition, an effort is needed to promote a general change of attitudes. In some cases, women are aware of their rights but do not dare to speak out for fear of causing domestic problems. However, if a dispute does occur, a woman’s position is strengthened by the existence of a land use right certificate in her name.
The official cost associated with re-issuing certificates is not high. This one-term cost for the government amounts to some VND20,000-30,000 per certificate. But the returns on this modest investment are significant.
Nguyen Thi Ha, a 42-year-old mother from Nghe An province notes: “Since I am co-owner of our land, I feel more involved in the decision making of the family. I want to make sure we earn and save enough money to have a good house, to all be in good health and to give our children a good education. Ever since my name has been on the certificate, I have felt more secure about the future.”
Women’s access to land use rights has serious repercussions. It is a small step that can have a major influence on the value and status of women in society.
The need for effective implementation of land certificates
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) is drafting supporting legislation on how to process and implement the new Land Law. This legislation will come into force on July 1. Knowledge of gender differences should enable policy-makers to design detailed guidelines in order to guarantee joint land use rights not only for new land registrants, but also for existing ones. Hence it is imperative to develop and implement a formal re-issuing and redesign programme for all land as well as to develop policies to ensure accountability and transparency to ensure women’s access to land.
Lua notes: “There is only place for one name on the land certificate, and thus the women in the village presume that only one person can register. They should print out new certificates and our community should explain to all of us the usefulness of registering and the need to do it.” Under the current process, people must apply to register for land; why not mandate the system and send out forms to newly-married couples?
The new legislation offers a very good opportunity to bring about change. Work needs to be done to find out the exact cost for re-issuing all existing certificates, but an approximate total cost could be well under $30 million (which is less than 2 per cent of 2003’s official development aid disbursements).
The United Nations in Vietnam notes that poverty and uncertainty of food supply are associated with the lack of property rights, especially in rural areas. Around the world, inequality in land ownership between men and women is one of the most common problems. Land ownership is a key component of agricultural productivity and increased income. To ensure gender equity in land use for women, it is necessary to promote the registration of land use rights under the names of both husband and wife.
Access to productive assets such as land is fundamental for development. The United Nations indicates: “It is of critical importance that the national vision of gender equality in equal access to land and land use becomes a reality in Vietnam to achieve poverty eradication and sustainable food security.”
It would be a timely contribution by donors to support the government in making the implementation of the new law a success. While the Vietnamese constitution guarantees equality between women and men in law, ensuring that women have equal land rights will bring Vietnam closer to de facto gender equality.
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