What Works for Women and Girls

share gender equitable laws are also available through the International Association of WomenJudges (http://www.iawj.org/) – working with women judges to ensure promotion and sharingof gender equal laws.What Works—Strengthening the Enabling Environment: Transforming Legal Norms toEmpower Women, including Marriage, Inheritance and Property Rights1. Enforcing laws that allow widows to take control of remaining property can increasetheir ability to cope with HIV.Promising Strategies:2. Community organizing can help women pursue their legal rights.3. Integrating legal services into health care can help ensure that women retain theirproperty.EVIDENCE1. Enforcing laws that allow widows to take control of remaining property can increase theirability to cope with HIV.An overview of 40 organizations working at a national level on property and inheritancerights, based on a survey of 60 community-based organizations in East and SouthernAfrica suggests that where women’s property and inheritance rights are upheld,women acting as heads and/or primary caregivers of HIV/AIDS-affected householdsare better able to mitigate the negative economic and social consequences of AIDS.Conversely, the denial of property and inheritance rights drastically reduces the capacityfor households to mitigate the consequences should a member be infected with HIV.Recommended interventions can be categorized as legislation, litigation and education:activities promoting gender sensitive legislation and a legislative framework thatprotects women’s human rights; activities enhancing the judicial sector’s capacity touphold women’s rights and provide for effective litigation; and activities that advancepublic awareness, understanding, and application of women’s rights (Strickland, 2004).(Gray V) (property rights, inheritance, East Africa, Southern Africa)314 CHAPTER 11 STRENGTHENING THE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT