PRESS
RELEASE
World
leaders urged to prioritize women’s land rights at
the UN
Bonn/New
York, 16 June 2023 – Women facing
worsening droughts, raging wildfires and other
climate change impacts will deliver an urgent
message to the international community at the
United Nations in New York, calling for better
land rights for women and girls
everywhere.
Drought,
land degradation and desertification – all of
which are becoming more frequent – are impacting
women and girls first and worst, world leaders
will hear at an event in the United Nations
General Assembly on 16th June to mark
Desertification and Drought
Day.
The
theme of this year’s global observance, led by the
UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD),
is ‘Her Land. Her Rights.’
Women
make up around half of agricultural workers in
developing countries and produce 60-80 per cent of
food grown in these regions yet own less than
one-fifth of all land worldwide. When land
degrades and water and other resources become
scarce, women and girls are exposed to poverty,
hunger, displacement and
violence.
Among
the leaders and gender equality champions
advocating for women’s full land rights will be
the Prime Ministers of Iceland Katrín Jakobsdóttir
and of Namibia Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, and the
Vice-President of the Government of Spain Teresa
Ribero Rodríguez. They will be joined by Finland’s
first female President Tarja Halonen, UNCCD
Goodwill Ambassadors and musicians Baaba Maal,
Inna Modja and Ricky Kej, as well as indigenous
and youth activists from countries as diverse as
Canada and Chad.
In
a shared call to action, they will show there is a
solution: women. They will say that when legal
barriers to women owning and inheriting land are
removed, women are able to make decisions on how
to manage land, and both soil health and
agricultural yields improve. Women are also more
likely to invest in their family’s nutrition,
health and education which benefits the whole of
society.
UNCCD
Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw said:
“Investing in women's equal access to land is not
just an act of justice. It is an investment in our
future, a commitment to the prosperity of our
planet. It is an affirmation that we value not
only the land beneath our feet, but the hands that
work it.”
To
coincide with the event, UNCCD is launching a new
analysis, which shows:
-
Despite
comprising nearly half the world's agricultural
workforce and producing up to 80 per
cent of food in developing countries,
women’s rights to inherit their husband’s
property continue to be denied in over 100
countries.
-
Discriminatory
practices related to land tenure, credit access,
equal pay and decision-making often impede their
active participation in sustaining land health.
Today, less than one-in-five landholders
worldwide are
women.
-
If
women had equal rights to land,
agricultural production in the poorest
regions would increase by up to 4 per cent and
malnourishment would decline by 12–17 per cent,
resulting in 150m fewer hungry people
globally.
-
Countries
with more women parliamentarians prioritize
women and girls’ role in land protection and are
more likely to ratify relevant treaties and set
aside land for conservation. Meanwhile,
only 12 per cent of the 881 national
environment-related ministries run by elected
officials are led by
women.
The
event will continue to build on UNCCD’s
‘Her Land. Her Rights.’ campaign, which
was launched on International Women’s Day in March
2023.
Organized
jointly by the UNCCD with UN Women, the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO), the UN Human Rights Office, and the UN
Development Programme (UNDP), the high-level event
“Her Land. Her Rights: Advancing Gender
Equality and Land Restoration Goals” will
include debates and discussions on a woman’s role
in sustainable land
management.
A
digital photo exhibition entitled ‘Her Land’
created and curated by Inna Modja will offer an
immersive experience of the daily realities facing
women and girls living on the frontlines of
desertification, land degradation and drought. She
will also be joined by fellow Goodwill Ambassadors
Baaba Maal and Ricky Kej in a live musical
performance.
In
addition to New York, other events to mark
Desertification and Drought Day – which officially
falls every year on June 17th – will take place in
all parts of the world, including China, Fiji,
Hungary, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Serbia,
Türkiye, and Vietnam.
ENDS
Notes
to editors
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