Property Rights in Sri Lanka: A Means of Gender Discrimination?

Abstract

Property has always been a privilege of a few and not a right of the humankind, and the lack of it makes men and women vulnerable.1 Those who do not enjoy rights relating to property need the fundamental protection of the law in respect to security of ownership and user rights. Many domestic laws2 and international and regional human rights documents3 recognize the rule to respect and guarantee the right to ownership, thus recognizing property as part and parcel of the autonomy and ethical integrity of a person. However, the very concept of the rule of law, which has been introduced to counter arbitrariness of the powerful, can buttress arbitrariness via discriminatory laws. These laws change property into a ‘means’ to create a distinction among people and suppress the rights of some of them. Patriarchy has effectively used property as a means to disempower and discriminate women through law. Some property laws in Sri Lanka provide illustrations for the point.