RECOMMENDATIONS FROM RURAL WIDOWS EVENT

                  

      To: UN, International Community, Governments, and CEDAW

·        Appoint a Special Representative on Widowhood (in Conflict Zones)

·        Commission a Special Report on Widowhood in Developing/Conflict afflicted countries

·        UN Women should establish a special section to address widowhood issues in context of human rights/VAW/poverty reduction/conflict resolution and peace building

·        Adopt a UN Resolution on Widowhood

·        Acknowledge rural widows as sub-sect of women experiencing special forms of abuse that require specific  responses and remedies

·        Support widows' groups through resources for their empowerment, and fill gap in data

·        Acknowledge that abuse of rural widows of all ages is one of root causes of poverty, hunger, homelessness and GBV

·        Address the impact of rural widowhood on the girl child

·        Address widow-abuse as a major issue in combating GBV

To: Governments and UN WOMEN

·        Mainstream widowhood issues in all gender/equality/Human Rights policies and laws

·        Ensure implementation of International and modern laws to eliminate discrimination against widows take precedence over discriminatory customs and traditions

·        Criminalise discriminatory and abusive practices perpetrated against widows

·        Provide for all land registrations to be in wives’ names as well as husbands’

·        Prohibit “land grabbing” by multinationals and industry, or “gifts” of land to political allies, where such land could be available to women heads of households.

·        Support widows’ to “band together” to form their own associations so as to have:

o       a collective voice to articulate needs and describe roles

o        fill gap in data through “mapping and profiling” themselves

o        access literacy, education, training, services, justice

o        be represented in appropriate decision-making committees

o        be consulted, and contribute to strategies to implement

        To: CEDAW; BPFA; UN SCR 1325; MDGs

·        Criminalise actions that deprive widows of their inheritance, property, and land rights: such as “chasing-off” and "property-grabbing"

·        Criminalise coercion of HTPs including harmful and degrading mourning and burial rites

·        Develop special “land allocation” schemes, and registration of title  to ensure rural widows can own and cultivate land for food security

·        Develop extension services and income-generating strategies that will enable rural widows to remain in their villages

·        Devise systems to ensure widows enjoy pensions, social security and micro- credit

·        Identify economic and sexual exploitation of widows and their daughters in rural areas and as migrants to urban centers

·        Protect widows from physical, sexual, and psychological violence.

·        Address the specific needs for resettlement and rehabilitation of conflict widows in IDP and refugee camps

·        Use all means to remove stereotyping and stigma of widowhood