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Brown Etareri Umukoro*
Faculty of Law, Delta State University, Oleh Campus, Nigeria.
Email: beumukoro@delsu.edu.ng | ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5216-8057
Ejiro Tessy Kore-Okiti
Faculty of Law, Delta State University, Oleh Campus, Nigeria.
Email: agwhefadatessy@gmail.com | ORCID: http://orcid.org/0009-0005-3286-5599
Ogechi Jessica Megbele
International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Nigeria.
Email: jolomi30@gmail.com | ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8892-4738
*Corresponding author
(2024) 04 (03) Journal of Environmental Law and Policy 203-229 https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp040308
Received: 15 November 2024
Accepted: 21 December 2024
Reviewed: 15 December 2024
Published: 31 December 2024
Revised: 20 December 2024
No. of Views:
No. of Paper Downloads:
Nigerian women are subject to deprivation in many ramifications despite the Constitutional safeguard protecting their rights against discrimination. Women in some Nigerian societies are still not recognized as having tangible entitlement in communal and family lands. They are mostly decorated with the rights of users even though they constitute the larger population of farmers in rural areas. The article is an investigation into the nature of women’s land rights in Nigeria and the disproportionate distribution of social and economic benefits flowing from the exploitation of the environment. This enquiry is prompted by the fact that oil mining and exploration activities adversely impact the environment, leaving women as the most affected. Notwithstanding, women are not substantially involved in the negotiations leading to reparation, remediation and the payment of compensation or the distribution of other social and economic benefits. The study finds that discriminatory customary inheritance laws impair women’s land rights in Nigeria including participatory environmental rights. Users of native lands deal with heads of communities and family heads who are mostly male thereby promoting unfair treatment and denial of women’s rights to share in the benefits of the environment even though women are more vulnerable to environmental harm, occasioning wider gender economic disparity and greater social and cultural inequality.
Keywords: Customary ownership; Women’s land rights; Environmental justice; Feminism
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Umukoro, B.E., Kore-Okiti, E.T. and Megbele, O.J. (2024). Customary Land Ownership and Women’s Land Rights in Nigeria: Extending the Frontiers of Feminist Environmental Justice. Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 04(03): 203-229. Doi: https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp040308
Umukoro, B. E., Kore-Okiti, E. T., & Megbele, O. J. (2024). Customary Land Ownership and Women’s Land Rights in Nigeria: Extending the Frontiers of Feminist Environmental Justice. Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 04(03), 203-229. https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp040308
Umukoro B. E., Kore-Okiti E. T., Megbele O. J. Customary Land Ownership and Women’s Land Rights in Nigeria: Extending the Frontiers of Feminist Environmental Justice. Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 2024, 04 (03), 203-229. https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp040308/p>
Umukoro, Brown Etareri, Kore-Okiti, Ejiro Tessy, Megbele, Ogechi Jessica. 2024. “Customary Land Ownership and Women’s Land Rights in Nigeria: Extending the Frontiers of Feminist Environmental Justice”. Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 04 no. 03: 203-229. https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp040308
Umukoro, Brown Etareri, Ejiro Tessy Kore-Okiti and Ogechi Jessica Megbele. 2024. “Customary Land Ownership and Women’s Land Rights in Nigeria: Extending the Frontiers of Feminist Environmental Justice”. Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 04 (03): 203-229. https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp040308
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