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World Peasants / Indigenous Organization April 2008 Newsletter

Batwa Appeal for Land in Uganda After Eviction
 
Pygmies communities in Uganda have said that the government has neglected them after evicting them form their natural habitat in Uganda in the early 1990's.

The Republic of Uganda is a home to more than four thousand and five hundred Pygmies. Most of them live in the Bundibugyo,Bushenyi, Kabale and Kisoro districts.

Introduction

Between 1990 and 2007, a massive programme of evictions has been carried out in the forests of Uganda.

Estimates suggest that hundred of thousands of persons have been forcibly evicted. Houses destroyed and many people have been rendered homeless. Human rights groups are expressing growing concerns about the ongoing increase in internally displaced form forest areas in Uganda.

These forced evictions have been ostensibly carried out in order to give the land to foreign investors or in order to protect the forests.

The government promised that it will ensure that all evictions comply with international human rights standards but there are still no concrete laws or guidelines at a national level to protect the victims of evictions.

Exploitation of Evicted Pygmies

The Batwa communities in the sub-counties of Bufundi and Butunda in Kabale district have appealed to Rotary International to help them acquire land. The BATWA made the appeal while meeting officials of the Rotary Club International form United Kingdom and those of the Rotary club of Kabale at Kinyarushenge, Makanga and Murambo community centre last month.

The meeting was facilitated by African International Christian Ministry (AICM) a local NGO operating in Kigezi region to promote the protection of the marginalized groups.

The chairman of the BATWA communities at Kinyarushegye, Mr. John Rwigyemera said "our biggest problem is lack of land on which we can practice agriculture and develop ourselves like any other Ugandan. The government evicted us from our regional habitat in Echuya forest but it did not compensate us".

"President Museveni has been giving land to foreign people whom they say are investors. We appeal to his office to consider us because we are Ugandans who are badly of than any foreign investor" said another Batwa leader at Makanga, Mr. Barinaba Tumwisigye.

Many Batwa communities are transient squatters and they are stantly looking for land where they can at least lodge until they are moved on. Speaking to the WPIO team in Kisoro, Maria a pygmy woman said, "These people who let us stay on their land temporarily they call on us to cultivate for them. If we refuse they force us to move away, they say they no longer want us". We are not settled here because other local people are pressing the landlords saying "what do you need the Batwa for?"

And at any time we may have to shift and settle elsewhere. These people never let us build something solid they don't even let us put up toilet because they don't want anything permanent on their land or holes which could be a problem for cultivation later. But if they catch us defecating in the fields they are angry. My daughter was caught and was forced to remove faeces with her hands.
 
Forced Evictions and Legal Instruments

The United Nations Human Rights Commission now the Human Rights council has described forced evictions as a "gross violation of human rights".

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has defined forced eviction as "the permanent or temporarily removal against their will of  individuals, families and or communities form the homes and or land which they occupy, without the provision of and access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protection.

Under the international and African Human Rights Law, everyone has a right to be protected against forced eviction. Evictions can only take place as a last resort after it has been determined that all other possible alternatives have been exhausted.

In an unavoidable case the process of eviction must include:

•  An opportunity for genuine consultation with those affected
• An adequate and reasonable notice for all the affected persons prior to the date of the eviction.
• Information on the proposed eviction should be made available in a reasonable time to those affected.
• Provide fair compensation and resettlement.
• Government officials or their representatives should be present during an eviction.
• Persons carrying out the evictions should be properly identified.
• Evictions should not  take place in particularly  bad weather or at night
• Legal remedies should be available and legal aid should be available to those in need of it to seek redress from the court.
• The evictions of the Batwa communities disused in this report reveal a failure by the authorities to abide by International Human rights standards in respect of evictions.

Recommendations

The World Peasants/Indigenous Organisation (WPIO) therefore recommended that the Government of Uganda:

• Ensure and put in place a consensus guidelines on the evictions with human rights standards,
• Ensure that victims in the forests and all other areas are provided with assistance in accordance with international human rights standars,
• Develop a policy and law requiring through social impact for activities that may result in eviction, including in forest areas, and mechanism for community participation to examine whether specific evictions are absolutely necessary, and whether there are alternatives to eviction, particularly for those groups who have traditionally lived in the forest,
• Move swiftly to put in place a comprehensive relocation and compensation plan for any proposed evictions, including in forest areas,
• Ensure that each case of illegal or irregular land allocation is investigated separately as to the origins of the allocation, and establish a land tribunal for such purposes,
• Coordinate the various activities of government ministries and agencies that are concerned with forests and/or evictions, and give instructions to all relevant authorities that any evictions may only be carried out in full compliance with international human rights law and standards.

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