WRRC projects with Semarak Cerlang Nusa, Indonesia
Semarak Cerlang Nusa had three projects under the Women's Inheritance and Property Rights working group:
- Developing capacity building methodology on women’s land rights, in contexts of customary laws, cultures, state laws and religious interpretations
- Support of selected local groups in exploring and developing strategies for asserting women’s land rights in diverse contexts
- Compiling a database of progressive cultural resource women’s land rights: interpretations, experts, media products
Semarak Cerlang Nusa (SCN) is an organisation that has been working in Indonesia to advance women’s rights in all spheres of life, including their rights to inheritance and property. The projects were undertaken in two contrasting project sites:
- In West Sumatra in West Indonesia, customary laws provided for women’s rights to inheritance, land ownership and property rights, but the implementation of State laws and Muslim laws caused women to have no access or enjoyment of such rights.
- In West Nusa Tenggara in East Indonesia, Muslim laws and state laws provided for women’s rights to inherit land, but customary laws caused women to have no access or enjoyment of their rights.
SCN adopted distinctive strategies to address the different problems of the two sites. In West Sumatra in West Indonesia, SCN:
- Developed the capacity of local community organizers to advance women’s rights to inherit communal ancestral land in the context of customary laws, State laws and religious laws
- Worked to increase the knowledge and awareness of a group of community women on how to handle their land dispute cases more effectively and more collectively
|
Problem area |
Results of strategies |
|
Customary laws and practices |
Increased social acknowledgment of women’s land rights to communal land through documented genealogies of ownership |
|
State laws and administrative practices |
Certification of ancestral land on behalf of all lineage members (male and female) |
|
Muslim laws |
Progressive interpretations to legitimise women’s rights to inheritance and property |
In West Nusa Tenggara in East Indonesia, SCN:
- Collaborated with another NGO – Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Asosiasi Perempuan Indonesia untuk Keadilan (LBH APIK) – to build on their existing work with customary leaders, Muslim leaders and para-legal activists
- Worked to increase the knowledge and awareness of these community leaders so that they are able to support women’s right to inheritance in cases that come to them for counselling and arbitration
These strategies were implemented through capacity building workshops, focus group discussions to identify, analyse and develop strategies, literature review of interpretations, tapping into the expertise of resource persons on progressive interpretations.
Website: http://www.scn-crest.org
Below, see SCN's products from these three projects.
PDF presentation:
Capacity Building Methodology on Women's Land Rights
Support of Selected Local Groups
Database of Progressive Cultural Resource on Women’s Land Rights
