A/HRC/22/72 communities do not adequately involve women in the land-registration process Moreover, often women lack information concerning the options for land registration. 28 26. Even in cases where women can register land in their name, the enjoyment of the property rights may be set back by the lack of alignment of the marriage legislation with the norms on land registration. Under certain customs, land is not transferrable from one village to another. As a consequence, women who marry men from other villages than their own may have to relinquish their lot of land or pay a fine. 29 In addition to the proof of registration of the land, ownership is also tested against conclusive evidence. This test frustrates women’s exercise of ownership rights because, despite the formal recognition, the decision-making and control of land usually rests with the man head of household. 30 Although titling individualizes the right to land, it also has the negative effect of excluding those rural residents who previously had user land rights through customary law. 2. Structure of communities and formal law in rural areas 27. Rural areas are perceived as spaces with a low density of population separated by distance from urbanized areas, and endowed with social traditions and cultures. 31 As holders and users of traditions and customs, rural residents may be more inclined to enforce these customs prior to formal law. Even in cases where domestic legislation provides for women’s rights, the prevalence of certain customs may weaken the enjoyment of those rights.32 28. The World Bank’s Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook points out that formal law has a weaker enforcement power than customs and traditions in rural areas.33 The perception is that formal law answers predominantly to urban problems and provides for urban solutions.34 The predominance of local sources of authority has consequences on the realization of women’s rights in rural areas in the sense that it may deprive women of the capacity to claim their rights and to challenge those sources of authority. 35 As custom is a specificity of the rural environment, abolishing customs may not necessarily result in an enhanced cohabitation of gender equality with cultural traditions.36 The economic empowerment of women may only happen through a change in the gender relations at all levels and institutions, including the household and, importantly, with the active participation and representation of women. 37 Therefore, the provision of information to women about their right to food and concerning their right to access courts to challenge discrimination is of paramount importance. 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 34 35 36 37 J. Brown, “Rural Women’s Land Rights in Java, Indonesia: Strengthened by Family Law, but Weakened by Land Registration”, 12 Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal (2003), pp. 643–646. M.H. Nguyen “Rural Women’s Property Rights in Vietnam: Weakened by Macroeconomic Reforms”, 13 New England Journal of International and Comparative Law (2006), p. 132. J. Brown, note 28 above, p. 643. L.R. Pruitt, (2008) “Gender, Geography and Rural Justice”, 23 Berkeley Journal of Gender Law and Justice (2008,), pp. 4–7. M. R. Vargas, L.R. Pruitt (2012),) “CEDAW and Rural Development: Empowering Women with Law from the Top Down, Activism from Bottom Up”, 41 University of Baltimore Law Review, p. (2012), pp. 278. World Bank, Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook , 2009, p. 127. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), report of the Secretary-General, “The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and challenges” (E/CN.6/2012/3), 9 December 2011, para. 30. CSW Report, para 30. World Bank, Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook, WB, see note 33 above; Sourcebook, p. 130. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food (A/58/330), para 23. UN-Women, note 25 above, p. 11. 9