INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS ON THE ELIMINATION OF GENDER-BASED CULTURAL DISCRIMINATION AND WOMEN’S PROPERTY RIGHTS IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Women’s rights to property are vital in determining the living conditions of women in most parts of the world. In fact, in rural agrarian economies where families depend on agricultural produce to feed, women constitute a large percentage of the agricultural workforce. Their rights to property have also been identified as a crucial factor in establishing gender equality. However, across different parts of the world, women are discriminated against in the enjoyment of these rights which is often as a result of prevailing customs and traditions. Global attempts at addressing the issue of discrimination against women culminated in the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and other treaties on women’s rights. Despite the fact that Nigeria signed and ratified the Convention, it has not yet implemented it within its national laws and women still encounter challenges in enjoying their rights to property. Hence, this study examined the ways in which the Ogun State government has been able to protect women’s property rights in the state within the provisions of CEDAW. Liberal feminism provided the theoretical framework for this study because, as a variant of feminism, it advocates gender equality and proposes the intervention of legal institutions in the enforcement of women’s rights. The cross-sectional survey design was adopted for the study while a mixed method of data collection was utilised. Structured questionnaire and interview schedules were used to elicit responses from various stakeholders among the population of study in Ogun State. Data obtained from administered questionnaire was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 and the four hypotheses were tested using the regression, Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and one sample t-test techniques. Responses from interviews were analysed thematically. The study established that there is a significant positive relationship between CEDAW and women’s property rights in Ogun State as the state, through its Ministries of Women’s Affairs and Social Development as well as Justice, has made efforts in developing measures (which align with state-obligations in the convention) to enforce the protection of women against any violation of their rights to property. It also revealed that certain factors such as education, customs and traditions as well as religion had impacts on the actualisation of these rights in the State. The study concluded that there are implemented policies in Ogun State that draw their bearing from CEDAW. These policies have ensured, to a very large extent, women’s rights to own property even though customs and traditions remain major impediments. This study recommended that there should be different avenues of creating awareness among the women such as leveraging on mass media platforms like radio programmes. Finally, the study suggested that future researches interrogate the impact of the migration of women, from one geo-political zone in Nigeria to another, on women’s property rights in Nigeria