Country: Uganda

Progress on just fisheries regulation in Uganda

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One of the key achievements of the 2022 act is the replacement of the army with the Fisheries Monitoring Control and Surveillance Unit, composed of people appointed by the Public Service Commission. The new regulations will be crucial to further address concerns of affected fishing communities.

Since 2018, FIAN Uganda in collaboration with allies including FIAN International has stood alongside affected fishing communities to amplify their voices and build pressure for a better fishing regulation.

Today, FIAN Uganda’s mobilization of fishing communities – especially women and youth – focused on the new regulations to ensure a full demilitarization of fishing areas, equitable access to fishing grounds, gender-responsive enforcement, and co-management structures that recognize fisherfolks as stewards of their own future.

“We envision a people-centered fisheries governance framework where communities co-manage resources with authorities – where lived realities shape regulations and justice replaces impunity,” says Dr. Rehema Namaganda Bavuma, Coordinator of FIAN Uganda.

“A framework where women and youth are no longer sidelined, and where fisheries policy promotes food sovereignty and not exclusion.”

Read more about fisheries in Uganda here.  

For more information, please contact Valentin Hategekimana hategekimana@fian.org

All community members should receive compensation from Kaweri Coffee

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In January 2025 the government of Uganda compensated 54 plaintiffs (representing almost 550 evictees). This was a first step towards putting into effect a Kampala High Court ordered consent for compensation. The whole case concerned 401 plaintiffs (representing approximately 4,000 evictees); 143 of them rejected the amount offered as being far below the value of their lost land belongings, and their suffering due to the eviction and violence and are continuing their legal battle.

“What we encountered since 2001 is an injustice and violence due to the loss of our land. Those of us who chose to continue the battle in the court will do so until justice is done,” says Peter Kayiira, one of the complainants.

Powerful advocacy

Over the last decade of their struggle, and in a remarkable display of creativity and resilience, women evictees formed an advocacy group using art to amplify their message. They composed songs and skits that captured the difficult realities of their struggle and their demands for justice.

These performances served as a unique way to communicate their plight to decision-makers, making their voices heard in a way that resonated deeply with both the local community and the broader audience. They also galvanized support for their cause, proving that advocacy can take many forms and be as powerful as it is creative.

This court-ordered compensation is a step forward but also a drop in the ocean. The lives of the evictees have worsened in the last 23 years, and many are destitute. At the same time Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd., a subsidiary of the Hamburg based Neumann Kaffee Gruppe continues to make profits.

“We have suffered a lot; we lost everything – this compensation is symbolic and I am in poverty conditions so I can’t refuse it,” said one community member.

FIAN has been supporting the evictees in advocacy and monitoring work since the beginning of their struggle, submitting regular reports to UN human rights mechanisms (ESCR/CEDAW/UPR) and assisting with the making of a documentary.

“The Ugandan government must ensure that the rights of the evictees are restored and adequate legal remedies and compensation are provided as suggested by the UN ESCR committee,” says Valentin Hategekimana, Africa Coordinator at FIAN International

Together with other allies, FIAN will continue to support the evictees in their struggle for justice.

Read more about the Kaweri case in this factsheet

For more information, please contact Valentin Hategekimana hategekimana@fian.org

Fisherfolk in Uganda welcome decreased army brutality

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Since the President of the Republic of Uganda directed the People’s Defense Force to combat illegal fishing, a special Fisheries Protection Unit has been systematically violating the human rights of small-scale fishermen and women through unlawful arrest, physical assault and destruction of property, including burning boats and fishing gear. Several fishermen were reportedly killed in 2020.

This army brutality has denied many small scale fishers access to Uganda’s extensive lakes, jeopardizing their human right to adequate food and nutrition. Despite the Minister for Fisheries affirming that the army will continue its operations in late 2023, a year later the Ugandan parliament ordered the fisheries ministry to implement the Fisheries and Aquaculture Act of 2022, which replaces armed forces with a non-military Monitoring, Surveillance, and Control Unit.

Advocating for rights

Recognizing the issues faced by fisheries communities, FIAN Uganda has embarked on a mission to advocate for their rights and dignity over the last five years. It implemented a multi-faceted strategy that included organizing community dialogues, conducting human rights trainings and sensitisation, engaging the media to highlight the plight of affected individuals, and supporting communities in writing petitions and letters to authorities and directly engaging and working with policy makers to influence fisheries and food policies in the country. The challenges facing fishing communities have also been highlighted in CEDAW and UPR parallel reporting to UN treaty bodies and the UN Human Rights Council.

“The concluding observations from CEDAW and the UPR have requested the State of Uganda to investigate and hold accountable state security agents and members of the police and army who have committed human rights abuses as well as ensuring adequate compensation for victims,” says Valentin Hategekimana, Africa Coordinator at FIAN International

FIAN Uganda’s work, together with other partners, has benefited more than 5,000 men and women in fisheries communities through human rights trainings and dialogues over the last five years. While the trainings were aimed at creating awareness about human rights and what constitutes violations – particularly of the right to food and nutrition – the dialogues were principally aimed at bringing all actors to the same table to discuss the challenges faced by fishing communities and how to solve them.

Progress

These dialogues fed into legal framework discussions, including the amendment of the fisheries bill and its subsequent passing into law in 2023 and the tabling of a long-awaited food and nutrition bill. Today, although the army remains present on the lake, incidents of brutality and human rights violations have decreased. Efforts are underway to fully establish the Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance Unit, as mandated by law. This unit will be composed of personnel appointed by the Public Service Commission to facilitate the complete withdrawal of the army.

“These achievements are the result of a strong mobilisation of communities to directly engage with policy makers and bring their lived experiences to the policy tables,” says Dr. Rehema Namaganda Bavuma, Coordinator of FIAN Uganda.

 For more information, please contact Valentin Hategekimana hategekimana@fian.org

UN report confirms urgent need to respect fisher people’s right to food

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Around the world, millions of people depend on the fish caught by almost 500 million fisher peoples for the essential protein in their diet. The full enjoyment of human rights by fisher peoples is a prerequisite for realizing the right to food and nutrition for all.

However, despite international recognition of their human rights, fisher peoples continue to encounter unprecedented levels of marginalization, eviction, and dispossession. Their right to food, nutrition, and other related human rights is abused and violated by the actions and inactions of states.

Revisit blue economy agenda

We welcome the report Fisheries and the Right to Food in the Context of Climate Change from the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food – and in particular his call for states to respect, protect and fulfill fisher people’s customary tenure rights – including full implementation of the FAO Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF) Guidelines and measures to “revisit the blue economy agenda”.

“This report illustrates that fishing should not be considered merely an industry or a commodity, but rather as a way of life for fisher peoples,” says Jones Spartegus, a representative of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples.

In the name of green and blue sustainable development, states are seeking to transform into liberalized global superpower economies at the cost of nature and nature resource-based indigenous peoples.

“In the vast expanse of our shared waters, fish is not merely sustenance – it is our commons, and fishing rights are fundamental human rights. The realization of the right to food becomes hollow if the harvest of the sea is tainted by the subjugation of fisher peoples,” says FIAN International case work and research officer Yifang Slot-Tang.

State-driven exploration and extractive blue economy and blue growth initiatives – along with coastal infrastructural and industrial development projects, conservation efforts, and extractive industries – encroach on fisher commons and further marginalize these communities.

Disregard for fishing communities

For example, in South Africa, the government continues to grant permits for oceanic oil and gas exploration without involving local fisher communities in decision-making.

“Small-scale fishers in South Africa see the continuous expansion of oil and gas applications and coastal mining. Despite active participation in opposition to these developments, fishing communities' voices are often disregarded,” says Jordan Volmink, from the South African small-scale fishers’ community development group Masifundise.

“Conservation efforts often infringe upon the livelihoods of small-scale fishers, who have historically relied on ocean and forest resources. This leads to harassment and violence, impeding their ability to sustain themselves and exercise their customary rights, thus impacting human rights, particularly the right to food and nutrition.”

Marginalization and violence

The conversion of small-scale, artisanal, and subsistence fishing economies into export-oriented seafood industries – fueled by globalized economies – has led to the deterioration of marine and coastal ecosystems. Mechanization, corporate interests, and colossal aquaculture projects result are driving dispossession of coastal lands, loss of marine biodiversity and marginalization of fishing communities.

India, driven by a growing global appetite for shrimp, has become one of the world's top shrimp producers, supported by government policies at the expense of fisher people’s health and livelihoods.

In the name of combating “illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing”, some states use extreme violence against fisher peoples. In Uganda, armed forces have been deployed since 2017 in an attempt to combat illegal fishing leading to overzealous arrests, the destruction of property and fishing gear and boats, and physical assault.

States must recognize the crucial role played by fisher people in feeding our planet and realize their right to food and nutrition by fully implementing the FAO’s SSF Guidelines and revisiting the blue economy agenda.

For more information or media interviews please contact Tom Sullivan sullivan@fian.org

Ugandan army must cease violence against fisherfolk on Lake Victoria

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FIAN calls on the Ugandan government to stop the criminalization of small-scale fishing and ongoing human rights violations.

Enforcing a 2017 directive to combat illegal fishing, the army has confiscated equipment, burned fishing boats and intimidated and harassed fisherfolk. Beatings are commonplace and property has been burned down. Young fishermen have died during operations by the armed forces. Many families were left in abject poverty as all their savings were invested in subsistence fishing.

“All my boats were burned when the army operations began,” said one fisherman in Mukono district, adding that Uganda’s fishing regulations make it impossible to earn a living.

“The nets they want us to use are so expensive, the requirements are expensive, the boat engine is expensive as well as the size of the boat needed … Everything is expensive, we request the government to help us, we no longer have food to eat.”

His experience is shared by many fisherfolk supported by FIAN Uganda, which has held human rights training sessions in the area.

“The government brought the army under the guise of protecting us. But our men are suffering because of this and we are suffering too,” said one fisherwoman and mother of four.

“They find them on the lake and claim that the boat is not of the standard size and that the nets are illegal, and the fish caught is also still young … We request the government to help us on that issue. It should also ensure that while making laws, they should come to us for consultation.”

Uganda has gazetted the fisheries and aquaculture Bill in 2020. The Bill, in its current form, poses threats to various human rights of both a civil and political nature such as freedom from torture and the right to a fair hearing, as well as those of an economic, social and cultural nature such as the right to adequate food.

Uganda has over a thousand kilometres of shoreline and fishing is one source of income for many communities living in extreme poverty. Women are particularly active in small-scale fisheries as they are generally responsible for drying, processing and selling the fish, as well as feeding their households.

Lake Victoria is an important source of food for several East African countries. Overfishing, especially of fish for export, combined with pollution from industry and agribusiness is threatening the livelihoods of millions.

For queries and additional information, you may contact Valentin Hategekimana, FIAN International Africa coordinator at hategekimana@fian.org.

FIAN launches Africa right to food and nutrition course for activists

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The Right to Food and Nutrition in Africa curriculum was developed by experts from Makerere University in Uganda. A pilot course was held in Kampala in December. The course covers the environmental, economic, socio-cultural and political issues which impact on the right to food and nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa. It also introduces conceptual thinking on how to sustain the present and future food and nutritional needs of the region.

“This is an important tool for training and building a growing pool of human rights activists and defenders who can contribute to the realization of the right to food and nutrition in Africa,” says Valentin Hategekimana, FIAN International Africa coordinator.

The five-day course uses participatory methods and experiential learning techniques that draw on participants’ knowledge and experiences. Although mainly intended for human rights activists and defenders, the course is also open to participants from academia, government, intergovernmental bodies and the judiciary.

“This training relates to what I do every day. It will be informing my day-to-day programming,” says Charles Opiyo, a seeds rights officer from Oxfam who attended the course in Uganda, adding that the capacity and opportunity for farmers to produce their own food is a critical part of the right to food.

Cissy Ssempala, a Ugandan human rights lawyer and advocate also participated in the course.

“I have learned that the right to food … is much more than just what the law says. It’s a livelihood – it encompasses so many rights,” she says. “So going forward in my practice I am going to try to reflect on and incorporate what I have learned here. It’s going to make me a better human rights lawyer.

The main aims of the course are:

  • Enabling participants to understand food, nutrition and the legal content and foundations of food and nutrition as a right;
  • Enhancing the knowledge of participants and building their skills to ensure the progressive realization of the right to food and nutrition in Africa;
  • Identifying and discussing the issues affecting the realization of the right to food and nutrition in Africa and how these could be overcome;
  • Bringing together human rights activists/defenders and creating a pool of empowered people to engage with right to food and nutrition issues in Africa and to support them in understanding their role in dealing with violations/abuses vis-à-vis affected communities;
  • Sharing experiences and best practices for the realization of the right to food and nutrition in Africa; and
  • Recognizing that different individuals, groups, and organizations might have different experiences, perspectives, and/or priorities with regard to the right to food and nutrition, and listening to and respecting differences is very much connected to listening for spaces and strategies for collaboration.

For further details please contact Valentin Hategekimana, FIAN International Africa coordinator at hategekimana@fian.org

From hunger to rape: UN body must probe women’s rights violations in Uganda

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FIAN has called on the UN committee tasked to monitor the implementation of a global treaty to end all forms of discrimination against women to look into the manifold and longstanding violations of the rights of rural and fisherfolk women in Uganda stemming from land-grabbing and fishing restrictions.

In a 10-page parallel report that they recently submitted to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, FIAN Uganda and FIAN International also appealed to the said panel to ask the Ugandan government to provide “speedy justice” to hundreds of rural women in Mubende District and women fishers in Mukono District and prosecute those who had violated their rights.

Hunger, rape, and the perpetuation of violation of women’s rights  

The report noted that by failing to solve the problems of these women, the government has perpetuated hunger, homelessness, and lack of access to education, water, and health among them.

Also, FIAN lamented over the government’s failure to investigate the reported cases of rape and domestic violence that the women suffered and provide them timely access to justice.

FIAN said that by failing to address the plight of these women, the Ugandan government had also failed to fulfill its obligations under the UN Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Uganda ratified the treaty in 1985, mandating its government to take appropriate legislative and non-legislative measures to prohibit all forms of discrimination against its women citizens. 

“The State of Uganda did nothing to ensure that women in…Mubende district are not illegally evicted. (A)nd even after the illegal eviction, the State of Uganda did nothing to alleviate hunger, malnutrition, and suffering among the women,” FIAN told the CEDAW Committee, composed of 23 independent experts on women’s rights from around the world.

The eviction took place in 2001 when the Ugandan army drove away the Mubende women and their families from their 2,524-hectare land to give way to the property’s 99-year lease by Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd., which is wholly owned by the Germany-based Neumann Kaffee Gruppe. (READ ABOUT THE MUBENDE CASE HERE)

Some women evictees, who had no other choice but to work in the plantation, have reported cases of sexual harassment and rape in the landholding, FIAN said in the report. “(U)nfortunately, (the) victims did not get justice…(F)or instance, one woman reported her rape case to the police but no investigations were done.”

Armed forces’ brutality, witchcraft accusations  

FIAN further told the CEDAW Committee that small-scale fisherwomen in Mukono were also facing hunger and malnutrition “due to the brutality of the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF), “who have destroyed their fishing equipment or witch-hunting practices.”

“Witchcraft accusations too often come with destroying houses, affecting especially women and children,” FIAN said.

“Several women have been unjustly attacked by other community members, who accused them to be witches due to their success in fishing. Their properties have been taken away or destroyed and they live without any protection from the state.”

The organization added that it had documented cases of arbitrary accusations and punishments that were “disproportionately levelled” against fisherwomen accused of witchcraft “with no response from the state structures.”

Fulfill treaty obligations, address women’s plight

FIAN said the government must compensate the women for the damages and sufferings that they’ve endured from eviction from the coffee plantation and at the hands of the UPDF.

FIAN also urged the CEDAW Committee to recommend to the Ugandan government to fulfill its treaty obligations by addressing the plight of its women through the following steps:

  • Ensure their free access to sufficient safe water
  • Set up a program that aims to build houses in good condition for the evictees and fishing communities
  • Provide them with food, arable land, and access to lakes for fishing
  • Ensure that girls and women have access to education
  • Ensure that they and their families have convenient and safe working conditions and decent income
  • Ensure that women evictees are protected from rape, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and prostitution and effectively investigate and prosecute those responsible for the crimes
  • Protect women stigmatized as witches, compensate them adequately for the damages and harms they have endured and prosecute their perpetrators  

For queries and additional information, you may contact Valentin Hategekimana, FIAN International Africa coordinator at hategekimana@fian.org.

 

Ugandans face serious human rights violations amid Total project

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The French oil giant Total is preparing a massive oil project in a natural park in Africa's Great Lakes region, forcing thousands from their homes. The project has been plagued by human rights abuses, underlining the need for a UN treaty that would hold corporations responsible for environmental and human rights crimes.

The colossal Tilenga project will have more than 400 wells and a 1,400 km pipeline stretching across Uganda and Tanzania. It will force over 100,000 people from their homes, including 30 percent of the population of one district. The majority of local farmers, already forced from their land in Uganda, have yet to receive compensation. Community activists have been attacked. Farmers who have testified in a French court case have received death threats.   

“The French national duty of vigilance law from 2017 is being tested in this case. It is the first law in the world to impose a duty on companies domiciled or headquartered within a state's territory to prevent HRs violations and environmental harm anywhere in the world they operate,” said Gabriela Quijano, a Business and HR expert.   

In a new report, published by FIAN International and Friends of the Earth France, we demonstrate how this case highlights the urgency for states to agree on a UN binding treaty on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights, under discussion in Geneva this week.  

The report is the third in a series examining how a UN Treaty could make transnational corporations accountable. As in the Brumadinho Dam Disaster in Brazil and the massive displacement of people after a land grab by Korea's POSCO in India, the Total case shows that a robust set of binding rules are needed to ensure peoples human rights are prioritized over economic interests. 

Juliette Renaud, senior campaigner at Friends of the Earth France, said “the French duty of vigilance law is not perfect, and there are still major gaps in protection for people affected by unscrupulous corporations.” 

“Learning lessons from this case through the adoption of an ambitious UN binding treaty is a unique opportunity to fill these gaps and finally put an end to corporate impunity,” added Renaud. 

Download COULD A UN TREATY MAKE TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS ACCOUNTABLE? THE CASE OF TOTAL’S TILENGA AND EACOP OIL PROJECTS

Time to hold corporations legally accountable for human rights and environmental crimes

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FIAN International stands in solidarity with hundreds of social movements and civil society groups around the world calling for a binding treaty with the teeth to protect peasants, small hold farmers, Indigenous Peoples and communities who have no proper recourse to justice when their lives, health and livelihoods are threatened. 

“There are too many gaps in international law which allow for the impunity of corporations that have caused or contributed to serious human rights impacts. After seven years of talks, governments must now stand firmly on the side of affected communities and advance the negotiations, taking into account the urgent need for global solutions,” said FIAN International’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ana María Suárez Franco.

There is currently no binding global legal framework to regulate the activities and value chains of transnational mining companies, agribusiness and other businesses with atrocious human rights records. This is particularly problematic in resource rich countries in the Global South with weaker legal protections, where companies can argue that they are not breaking any local or international laws when they force communities off their land, pollute their habitats, and even cause loss of life.

Voluntary guidelines like the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and national legislation like the French law on the duty of vigilance of transnational corporations are not enough to protect communities and the environment from unscrupulous corporations. As demonstrated in several recent high profile cases, such as the massive displacement of communities in Uganda by French oil giant Total, the Brumadinho Dam Disaster in Brazil and Land grabbing by POSCO in India, a robust set of binding rules are needed to ensure peoples human rights are prioritized over economic interests.

“An international treaty on transnational corporations and other businesses is essential to govern globalized economies,” said Ana María Suárez Franco. “A level legal playing field would fill the gaps in protection, allow people better access to justice, and hold companies liable for their human rights and environmental impacts.”

In the wake of last month’s UN Food Systems Summit in Rome, which failed to curb the growing power of agribusiness, it is all the more important to seize this opportunity at the UN in Geneva between 25 and 29 October.

Corporate interests, or states intent on defending them at the expense of people, must not be allowed to hijack the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights (OEIGWG) must not be hijacked by corporate interests, as happened in the past with similar initiatives.

That would be a lost opportunity for communities fighting human rights abuses around the world and for the UN-system.

THE TASTE OF TRAGEDY-FLAVORED COFFEE

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Residents of Uganda’s Mubende District have decried the lack of justice for their long suffering and oppression as a result of their brutal displacement from a vast tract of land that was converted into a plantation to supply coffee beans to the world’s top trader of the commodity.

“This day marks the 20th year of our violent eviction and the perpetuation of injustice against us. As people around the world enjoy billions of cups of coffee every day, we continue bearing the brunt of this profit-driven coffee growing enterprise that made us taste tragedy and stripped us of all our rights to live with dignity,” said Peter Bareke Kayiira, the spokesperson of the evictees.

On August 17, 2001, the Ugandan army started to drive away Kayiira and approximately 4,000 other Mubende residents from their 2,524-hectare land in the villages of Kitemba, Luwunga, Kijunga and Kiryamakobe.

The forcible eviction was carried out by the state of Uganda to give way to the 99-year lease of the landholding to Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd., which is wholly owned by the Germany-based Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, the world's leading green coffee service and trading group with over 50 companies operating in 26 countries.

Rights continuously violated

The evictees suffered from violence and lost everything they had during the five-day eviction from August 17 to 21, 2001.

They were threatened and forced to leave their homes at gunpoint and many of them were beaten up in the process. Their houses were burned down, their movable properties looted, and their crops destroyed.

The villages’ clinic and churches were demolished, while their primary school was eventually turned into the plantation’s headquarters. Deaths and diseases ensued among the villagers after they were forced out of their land.

Until now, the evictees, mostly engaged in casual labor with meager incomes, continue to live in dire situation with their rights to food, water, nutrition, health, work, and education continuously violated. 

Their right to enjoyment of cultural life and right to get timely justice and legal remedy are also being curtailed and disrespected.

This, despite the fact that all the said rights are guaranteed to the evictees and all citizens of Uganda through the state’s constitution and several international covenants and treaties that the country ratified, including the UN-adopted International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Covid-19 lockdown compounds problems caused by eviction

Compounding their predicament are the lockdown measures imposed in Uganda to contain the spread of Covid-19. With little or no land to carry out farming activities and movement restrictions that caused many of them to lose their already paltry income as casual workers, the problem of hunger became more intense among the evictees.

“Landlessness here in Uganda means lack of food. Rural families have to grow food for themselves. We have been having a lot of problems ever since the eviction, including food scarcity exacerbated by the onset of COVID-19. Hunger is on the rise and life is becoming more and more difficult,” said Kayiira. 

Moreover, in a recent report, FIAN Uganda noted that the number of domestic violence cases had increased among the evicted women following the Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd.’s takeover of the land.

The organization linked the problem to the lack of necessary resources for women to prepare meals for their husbands and children (such as bananas, maize, potatoes, rice and beans) because they were deprived of their food crops and also water and firewood for cooking as a result of their eviction.

FIAN Uganda also said there was a rise in the number of pregnancies among female teenage evictees, who were said to have offered sex to men in exchange for food or money.

Pleas for justice fall on deaf ears

The Kaweri evictees have been seeking justice since 2002, the year they sued the Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd. and the Ugandan government before the country’s high court.

However, until today, they have neither been compensated for the loss of their property nor obtained the restitution of their land or any other land to restart their lives.

In 2019, the court ordered a mediation process towards an out of court settlement, which is still ongoing.

Some of the evictees agreed with the process despite not having any assurance of being fully compensated at some point. Others want to pursue a full trial so that justice can be fully served and those responsible for their plight can be held accountable.

A woman evictee, who was just seven years old when the eviction took place in 2001, is demanding full compensation from the Ugandan state but lamented that it evidently lacked the political will to do so.

“Some of us have died already. But up to now, we are still waiting for justice,” she said.

Governments of Uganda, Germany must not tolerate impunity

The evictees have also brought their case before international bodies to compel both the Ugandan and German governments to act on their pleas.

In 2015, the UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) urged the Ugandan government to “take immediate measures to ensure that the rights of the Mubende community are restored as well as of all other forcibly evicted communities.”

The committee also told the state to “consider developing a legal framework on forced evictions, which includes provisions on effective and meaningful consultation, adequate legal remedies, and compensation.”

In 2017, the UN Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) recommended that the German government “introduce effective mechanisms to investigate complaints filed against” transnational companies, particularly large-scale agricultural firms registered or domiciled in the state party “with a mandate to, inter alia, receive complaints and conduct independent investigations.”

The committee also advised the German government to “adopt concrete measures, including a redress mechanism to facilitate access to justice for women victims of human rights violations…”

However, neither the state of Uganda nor the state of Germany has followed the recommendations from the CESCR and CEDAW.

Valentin Hategekimana, coordinator for Africa at FIAN International, urged the two governments to “end the injustice long suffered by the evictees.”

READ: FIAN International's appeal to the German Gov't to Restore the Rights of Uganda's Kaweri Evictees

READ: FIAN International's appeal to Ugandan gov't: Comply with int'l rights obligation in favor of Kaweri evictees

“They have suffered a lot. Unfortunately, until today there is pure impunity for those responsible for human rights violations and abuses in this case. This situation cannot be endlessly tolerated,” he said.

For queries and additional information, contact Valentin Hategekimana, FIAN International Africa coordinator at hategekimana@fian.org.