CEDAW/C/60/D/48/2013 recalls that it is specifically mentioned in general recommendation No. 29 that States parties are required to ensure that disinheritance of the surviving spouse is prohibited. 29 7.3 As stated in its general recommendation No. 21, the Committee stresses that the rights provided in article 16 (1)(h) overlap with and complement those in article 15 (2) in which an obligation is placed on States parties to give women equal rights to administer property. 30 It is the Committee’s view that the right of women to own, manage, enjoy and dispose of property is central to their financial independence and may be critical to their ability to earn a livelihood and to provide adequate housing and nutrition for themselves and for their children, especially in the event of the death of their spouse. 31 7.4 The Committee further recalls that, under article 13 of the Convention, States parties are required to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in areas of economic and social life, in particular with regard to their right to bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial credit. 7.5 In addition, the Committee recalls that the application of discriminatory customs perpetuates gender stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes about the roles and responsibilities of women and prevents women from enjoying equality of status in the family and in society at large. 7.6 In the present case, the Committee notes that inheritance matters are governe d by multiple legal systems in the State party and that the authors have been subjected to Sukuma customary law on the basis of their ethnicity. 32 The Committee also notes that, although the State party’s Constitution includes provisions guaranteeing equali ty and non-discrimination, the State party has failed to revise or adopt legislation to eliminate the remaining discriminatory aspects of its codified customary law provisions with regard to widows. Consequently, the authors were deprived of the right to administer their husbands’ estates and excluded from inheriting any property upon the death of their spouses. The Committee considers that the State party’s legal framework, which treats widows and widowers differently in terms of their access to ownership, acquisition, management, administration, enjoyment and disposition of __________________ 29 30 31 32 15-05820 limited and controlled rights and receive income only from the deceased’s property. Often inheritance rights for widows do not reflect the principles of equal ownership of property acquired during marriage. Such provisions contravene the Convention and should be abolished.” General recommendation No. 29, para. 53. It is also mentioned in the paragraph that States should ensure that “property dispossession/grabbing” is criminalized and that offenders are duly prosecuted. In that respect, see para. 50: “In some States parties, widows are subject to ‘property dispossession’ or ‘property grabbing’, in which relatives of a deceased husband, claiming customary rights, dispossess the widow and her children from property accumulated during the marriage, including property that is not held according to custom. They remove the widow from the family home and claim all the chattels, then ignore their concomitant customary responsibility to support the widow and children. In some States parties, widows are marginalized or banished to a different community.” General recommendation No. 21, para. 25. Ibid., paras. 26-28. See also general recommendation No. 29, para. 49: “Many States parties, by law or custom, deny widows equality with widowers in respect of inheritance, leaving them vulnerable economically upon the death of a spouse.” See general recommendation No. 29, para. 12, and general recommendation No. 28 , para. 18, on intersectional discrimination. 11/13