Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 26

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Women's right to equality in matters of inheritance is also relevant within the context of Sharia law, the application of which particularly affects women in the Middle East and North Africa. While Sharia law generally supports women's rights to acquire, hold, use, administer and dispose of property, women and girls receive a lesser share than their male counterparts when it comes to matters of inheritance (generally half of what a male in the same position would be entitled to receive). Customary practices and traditional structures can also contribute to further aggravating the situation. A prime example is that women are often forced, due to social pressures, to renounce their already reduced share of the inheritance in favour of male members of the family. In order to discourage this practice, in the occupied Palestinian territory, the Deputy Supreme Judge of Palestine of the Head of the Upper Council of Sharia Jurisdictions issued a notice in 2011 in which he instructed relevant authorities to apply certain conditions before legalizing a woman's renunciation of her inheritance share, including that at least four months pass after a person's death before a renunciation of inheritance can be registered. The notice also instructs the relevant authorities to verify the real value of the inheritance share, relying on an official report by three experts authorized by the municipality or local council. This new protocol is aimed at helping women to retain their inheritance shares and protecting women from losses as a result of reduced valuations of those shares.
Legal status
Non-negotiated soft law
Body
Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
Document type
Special Procedures' report
Means of adoption
N.A.
Topic(s)
  • Civil & Political Rights
  • Social & Cultural Rights
Person(s) affected
  • Girls
  • Women
Year
2012
Paragraph type
Other
Reference
SR Housing, Report to the HRC (2012), A/HRC/19/53, para. 26.
Paragraph number
26