A/HRC/11/6 page 15 are repatriated may no longer have houses or land to return to due to destruction, forced relocation to a different locality, discriminatory inheritance laws, lack of property titles, and secondary occupants, etc. 45. Large development projects or major international events may involve large-scale evictions of poor people from their homes and land in order to free up desired locations or build infrastructure for the event. The impact of these forced evictions, often by militia or armed forces, is profoundly devastating for women and is correlated with heightened rates of physical, psychological and economic violence before, during and after the evictions.29 This is true both in terms of VAW at the hands of State authorities, non-State actors, community members, as well as domestic violence. 46. The violation of women’s right to adequate housing has also led to gender-based violence both during and in the aftermath of natural and humanitarian disasters. A study of housing reconstruction in the context of the international response to the tsunami in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu revealed gross disregard for women’s and girls rights.30 Compensation was generally handed out to male-heads of the family who, in many cases, did not share it with the women or surviving women-only households.31 47. Forced evictions and displacement also have implications for all other rights discussed in this section. 2. Property, land and inheritance rights 48. The right to adequate housing is integrally related to property, land ownership and inheritance rights. The gender gap in land ownership and its effective control is the single most critical contributor to the gender gap in economic well-being, social status and empowerment in the agrarian economies of most developing countries.32 Property is a livelihood sustaining asset that can generate income as well as security. Owning land gives women economic rights and opportunities to avoid situations where they are vulnerable to violence. It also increases their bargaining power within the family and society at large. 29 Centre for Housing Rights and Eviction (COHRE), 2002, Violence: the impact of forced evictions on women in Palestine, Nigeria and India (available at http://www.cohre.org/view_ page.php?page_id=328#article1131). 30 Habitat International Coalition (HIC), Report of a Fact-Finding Mission to Tamil Nadu, India and Sri Lanka South Asia Regional Programme, South Asia Regional Programme, Housing and Land Rights Network, New Delhi Mission report, 2005 (see http://www.hic-net.org/document. asp?PID=277). 31 32 Ibid. Agarwal, Bina, A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge South Asian Studies, 1994.