DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The Congolese government violated the rights of the Indigenous Batwa community by evicting them about 50 years ago from their ancestral lands to expand one of the country’s biggest national parks, according to the African Union’s commission human rights. The decision, made public on Monday, is the first of its kind to recognize the central role that native populations play in protecting biodiversity.
Batwa people lived as hunters and gatherers in the forested areas of Uganda, Rwanda and Congo. In 1970, a Belgian photographer and conservationist founded the now-famous Kahuzi-Biega National Park near the western bank of Lake Kivu on a territory, traditionally used by the Batwa people.
Following the park’s expansion iin 1975, around 13,000 Batwa people were evicted from their homes in the name of protecting biodiversity. Most still live on its fringes in makeshift villages, struggling to access land and healthcare.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights called on the Congolese government to allow for the safe return of Batwa people, to grant them ownership of their ancestral lands located within the national park, issue a public apology acknowledging their abuses and pay the Indigenous people compensation after recognizing them as citizens.
The commission also criticized the so-called “fortress conservation” model which holds that the best way to protect biodiversity is to isolate ecosystems and evict local communities who depend on these areas for their livelihoods.
“The decision negates the idea that solving the climate crisis requires displacing Indigenous communities and seizing their lands,” said Samuel Ade Ndasi, African Union Litigation and Advocacy Officer at the Minority Rights Group, a charity that represented the Batwa people. “From this point forward, no Indigenous community should be evicted in the name of conservation anywhere in Africa.”
In 2015, The case was brought in front of the commission by MRG and Environnement, Ressources Naturelles et Developpement, a Congolese rights group, on behalf of the Batwa community.
The commission, which doesn’t make its decisions public, decided in favor of the Batwa people in 2022. Lawyers said publicizing the decision was delayed because of errors in the French language version, adding that the Congolese government is yet to take action to implement it.
The Batwa people have repeatedly tried to return to their ancestral home in the national park.
In October 2018, some members of the Batwa community, who according to Amnesty International were living “in extreme poverty in areas surrounding the park” returned to the park’s territory to rebuild their villages. They were met with swift and devastating violence by park authorities and Congolese soldiers, according to rights groups.
In July 2021, Amnesty International expressed “deep concern and dismay” over reports that joint contingents of park guards and soldiers have recently attacked villages inside the national park and committed “serious human rights abuses.”
In 2022, an investigation conducted by the Minority Rights Group documented a three-year campaign of organized violence by park authorities and Congolese soldiers to expel Batwa from their land, resulting in the death of at least 20 people, group rape of at least 15 and forced displacement of hundreds.
Congolese authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Commission’s decisions are binding for all African Union nations but many governments have ignored them in recent years.
If the Congolese government opts not to implement the decision, the rights groups could elevate the case to the African Court on Human and People’s Rights, the continent’s top judicial body charged with the protection of human rights.
According to the UN special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples, up to 250,000 people across the world have been forcibly evicted to make way for conservation projects since 1990.