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Leitner law center news
2010 Crowley Project Focuses on Difficulties Women Face in Securing Adequate Housing in Urban Areas in Tanzania

DAR ES SALAAM, TZ (May 17, 2010) – Despite its obligations under international law, Tanzania is struggling to cope with an urban housing crisis that has resulted in its slum population exploding to an estimated 85% of the nation’s total urban population. Sadly, women are rapidly becoming the face of poverty in this growing urban landscape. Their inability to escape discriminatory cultural and legal norms reportedly contributes to their increased migration to urban areas, and little work has been done to investigate the disparate impact slum living has on these women.

For two weeks beginning May 16, Fordham Law School Professors Katherine Hughes, James Kainen, Rachel Vorspan, and Elisabeth Wickeri will lead a delegation including seven law students on an overseas project to investigate and document the difficulties women face in securing adequate housing in urban areas, focusing on the factors that push women to move to urban areas and the unique challenges women face during their time in urban slums.

Professors Hughes, Kainen, Vorspan, and Wickeri will be joined by seven Fordham Law School students.  The students participating in the documentation project are Crowley Scholars Jacqueline Bevilaqua, Mari Byrne, Cristine Delaney, Maria-Elena Kolovos, Jesse Melman, Matthew Putorti, Amy Rossnagel, and Marni von Wilpert. The delegation is happy to be collaborating with a wide range of non-governmental organizations, most especially the Dar es Salaam–based Women Advancement Trust–Human Settlements and the Centre for Community Initiatives.

In an effort to gain a deeper understanding of these pressing issues, the delegation will conduct wide-ranging interviews with members of the government, the judiciary, academics, lawyers, non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations, community organizers, men and women living in informal settlements, and local leaders.  It is hoped that the project will inform national and international approaches to urban slum upgrading, encouraging various institutions to incorporate both human rights and gendered perspectives into their programs.

After a semester spent studying Tanzanian culture, law, and history and with a firm grounding in international human rights law, the delegation is now preparing to conduct its fieldwork. Upon completion of the trip, the Leitner Center will produce a report of its findings to be distributed in Tanzania and internationally.

The Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School promotes teaching, scholarship, and advocacy in the field of public international law. The Center sponsors programs designed to prepare law students for work as human rights lawyers and seeks to have a real and measurable impact on the level of respect for international human rights standards.


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Leitner Center for International Law and Justice
Fordham University School of Law
150 West 62nd Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10023 USA

Email: LeitnerCenter@law.fordham.edu
Telephone: 212.636.6862
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Faculty and Staff
Elisabeth Wickeri
Executive Director, Leitner Center for International Law and Justice

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