Land rights and gender equality in the Pacific region Sue Farran * Introduction Disadvantages suffered by women in respect of real property rights are not limited to Pacific Island countries. Gender inequality in the property field is widespread and only fairly recently addressed in even the more developed Pacific region countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is also self-evident that changing the law by itself does not eradicate gender inequality, particularly where such inequalities are caused by a variety of deeply entrenched structures and mores. This especially is the case in Pacific Island countries where most land is held under customary forms of land tenure, where society remains strongly patriarchal and where land law reform is a hugely difficult issue. In these countries, despite the fact that a number of Pacific Island countries are signatories to Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (hereafter, CEDAW) and include provisions against discrimination in their written Constitutions, women remain disadvantaged in terms of land rights. This article outlines some of the reasons for this and suggests some ways in which this might be addressed. 1 Context Land and demographics The area under consideration includes the Pacific Island States of Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Together these countries represent a total land area of 517,711 sq km. There are major discrepancies in land mass however, from Tokelau’s 10 sq/km to Papua New Guinea’s 452,869 sq/km. It should also be noted that in all cases the total sea area of Pacific Island countries far exceeds the land mass, amounting in all to 18,268,000 sq/km. The total population of these islands is estimated to be 8,556,507. Of these 3,648,147 are estimated to be female. Women of various ages therefore make up 43% of the population. Fundamental rights Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and most recently Kiribati 2 have all ratified the CEDAW, and New Zealand has ratified * Lecturer at the University of Dundee and formerly Associate Professor of Law at the University of the South Pacific based in Vanuatu. 1 This article is based on a paper delivered at the Commonwealth Gender and Human Rights Workshop, May 2004, Nadi, Fiji. 2 Which ratified CEDAW in March 2004. 131