Housing for the landless: resettlement in Tsunami-affected Aceh, Indonesia

Women often face pre-displacement constraints on rights to land, and are at greater risk of losing access to land after disasters. Yet, the aftermath of a disaster is the time when women most need land for recovery. This paper is structured to reflect these concerns about women and land rights in disaster-affected Indonesia. It focuses on the two key land rights issues for women in tsunami-affected Acech, Indonesia: inheritance and documentation of land rights.

More than 150,000 people died in Indonesia as a result of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. Most land records were severely destroyed or damaged. The inheritance of land, and the restoration of land rights certainty, will be major determinants of recovery for women.

The paper makes the following recommendations

Inheritance

• village heads should be granted legal authority to refer inheritance disputes to the Syariah Court. Impoverished claimants should receive legal aid for Syariah Court litigation arising from a village head referral
• specialist NGOs should be granted legal standing to bring representative inheritance cases before the Syariah Court on behalf of vulnerable clients
• claimants that refuse to accept an inheritance determination by the village head must bring the case to the Syariah Court within a three-year period, or else lose their rights to claim the land in question
• the Syariah Court should be assisted to provide information and training programs in Syariah inheritance law for village leaders
• support for a decentralised land and housing resource centre that has a particular focus on claims by women
• provide assistance to legal aid organisations to provide special support for women's land claims.

Documenting Land Rights:

• land title certificates should be issued in the names of husbands and wives where land is identified as marital property
• every effort should be made to include female representation in each adjudication team
• training programs should be instituted to ensure qualified female representation in facilitation and adjudication teams
• Indonesia's National Land Agency (BPN) should ensure that community facilitators work with its adjudication teams whether or not the area has been subject to community land mapping. These community facilitators should include women