A/HRC/4/32/Add.3 page 20 80. During violent ethnic conflict, rape has become a weapon of aggression and a systematic form of abuse by security forces. Indigenous women complain that rape allegations are not treated seriously in police stations. In cases of rape within their own communities, the redress provided by existing customary laws fails to compensate the victim. 81. Many indigenous women are denied access to property rights as a result of discriminatory statutory and customary law. ILO reports that women suffer marginalization with regard to land ownership due to patrilineal systems of land inheritance, and become virtually destitute in case of widowhood or divorce. Women are further excluded from decision-making in land transactions and the administration of communal ownership and group ranches. A report published by Human Rights Watch in 2002 concludes that discriminatory property laws generate gross violations of women’s human rights, relegating them to dependence on men, abhorrent living conditions and increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. V. CONCLUSIONS 82. The pastoralist and hunter-gatherer way of life of Kenya’s indigenous peoples has come under heavy strains in recent decades. This is mainly the result of the historical legacy of colonialism, but also of inappropriate land policies and developmental strategies in ASALs and forest areas since independence, which are currently being revised. These policies entailed the systematic land-loss of rangelands and of forest reserves that underpinned the pastoralist and hunter-gatherer livelihoods and their cultural sustainability, leading to serious violations of economic, social and cultural rights and some persistent abuses of civil and political rights. 83. Nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralism and agro-pastoralism were erroneously considered an obstacle to Kenya’s economic development. The assault on the pastoralists’ grazing areas involved forced displacements and the drastic reduction of available rangeland for livestock herding. The privatization of land, water and other resources, and the individualization of homesteads led to the fragmentation of traditional communally owned lands, increasing competition and conflict over diminishing resources, the progressive disintegration of community life and the growth of social and economic inequality among indigenous communities. To this must be added the long-term effects of persistent droughts and the environmental deterioration of pastoralist areas and forests, including diminishing water resources. 84. Historical injustices and contemporary dispossession of lands and resources have been a major setback for the full enjoyment of the human rights of these groups. While a number of government initiatives have underlined the importance of such issues, the current land legislation and policies do not adequately address the challenges faced by pastoralist and hunter-gatherer communities. It is still a pending issue to be resolved, but the longer it takes the more difficult it will become for indigenous communities to be guaranteed their right to land, territory and resources. 85. The exclusion of hunter-gatherers and pastoralists from national parks and game reserves as a result of misguided conservationist policies also contributed to their progressive impoverishment and did not offer any alternatives for economic and social development for indigenous communities. This rigid conservationist strategy has come increasingly under critical