Colombian municipality becomes the first to guarantee land ownership rights of women by decree.
THE STRUGGLE
For more than 200 years, women around the world have been fighting for their rights. In Colombia, women gained citizenship only in 1954, and three years later, a woman voted in an election for the first time. Ever since, Colombian society is sharpening its awareness that women have economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as men.
Today, the struggle for equality continues. Women are victims of discrimination and face barriers in accessing their rights—among them, the formalization and titling of their properties.
In December 2017, the municipality Santander de Quilichao—located in Cauca Department in southcentral Colombia—and its mayor, Hernando Mendoza Bermúdez, made a historic step in land rights and women by singing into decree that “measures are taken in regard to land-related rights for women.”