Gender, decision-making on land ownershipand indegenous rights in cameroon: searching for a balance in law

Women the world over occupies and play significant roles in human development especially at the family level where they stand as bread-winners. This remain more true in indigenous communities even though such vital position is often under looked by traditional and customary rules under which they are considered as ‘chattels’ or ‘properties’ over which the male counterpart exercises total control and domination. In Cameroon, the situation has not been the best. How better could women’s rights be asserted therefore, if not through land ownership which in local settings constitutes livelihood and wealth. Thus, after examining the legal dispositions at the international and national levels with related literatures, one realized that, rights to participate in decision-making over land including land ownership occupies an important place, though hardly implemented effectively by the government given that she holds competing interests to the same, thus, projected as guarantor and even owner of all lands in the country. Better still, if the country’s decentralization which is much en vogue could be speedy, then one could have hope for land ownership and better participation in decision-making for women at all levels.