Thematic Areas

Women’s Socio-Economic Rights

We prioritise using the law to achieve policy and legal outcomes that advance socio-economic rights. Such rights may relate to women’s legal rights to material resources such as land, housing or property, access to fair and non-discriminatory working conditions, the recognition of human and sexual rights within diverse zones of labour (including wage-based, informal, casual and reproductive sectors), as well as women’s access to healthcare and education. The current focus of our work is on the following:

• The lack of equal rights to inheritance
• Laws excluding or restricting women’s access to property rights
• The property rights of women who are cohabiting
• Legal processes that lead to the denial of women’s property rights
• Exclusion of women in the processes and laws governing the administration of deceased estates
• Practices and laws that threaten women’s rights to an equitable share of property upon dissolution of marriage
• Gendered impact of the activities of the extractives industry on women’s access and use of land
• Sexual harassment
• Laws and practices which hinder women’s rights to work
• Laws and practices which affect women’s rights in the workplace
• Women’s sexual and reproductive healthcare rights
• Women’s rights to education