The Congolese government has been found to have violated the rights of the Indigenous Batwa people by forcibly evicting them from their ancestral lands to expand a national park, according to a landmark ruling by the African Union’s Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The decision, made public on Monday, marks the first time the commission has recognized the crucial role of native populations in safeguarding biodiversity.
The Batwa, traditionally hunter-gatherers, have inhabited the forested regions of Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo for generations.
In the 1970s, the creation and subsequent expansion of Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo resulted in the displacement of approximately 13,000 Batwa people.
Since then, they have endured hardship on the park’s fringes, facing challenges in accessing land and healthcare.
The commission has ordered the Congolese government to facilitate the safe return of the Batwa to their ancestral lands, grant them ownership of this territory, issue a formal apology, and provide appropriate compensation.
The ruling also condemns the “fortress conservation” model, which prioritizes ecosystem isolation over the rights of local communities.
“This decision is a game-changer,” said Samuel Ade Ndasi of the Minority Rights Group, which represented the Batwa.
“It challenges the harmful notion that protecting the environment requires sacrificing Indigenous peoples and their lands.”
The case was initiated in 2015 by the Minority Rights Group and a Congolese rights organization on behalf of the Batwa community.
While the commission reached a decision in favor of the Batwa in 2022, the public announcement was delayed due to translation issues.
Despite the ruling, the Congolese government has yet to take steps to implement it.
The Batwa people have faced violent resistance in previous attempts to reclaim their homeland, highlighting the ongoing challenges they confront.
