Women's rights to own or hold registered land in Tonga may be re-visited in the review into the country's land laws and practices.
Tonga's Royal Land Commission is in it's first phase of review and is looking at the practises being used by the Land Ministry and making sure any problem areas in the implementation of land laws are identified and imporvements are made.
The secretary of the Royal Land Commission Gloria Pole'o says the public has indicated one of the issues needing to be looked at is the fact that under the current land laws in Tonga women are unable to own or hold registered land.
"Although they can lease lands, but they don't have a right to inherit or register land so there's been some indication of the need to review this and maybe make land more available for women, not just through leasing of land but maybe even allow women to register land."
Gloria Pole'o says however there is no certainty at this stage as to whether these changes will be made.
