Nature of the Case
The case involved the indigenous Batwa community, who were forcibly evicted from their homes and ancestral lands in the 1970s in order to allow for the creation and expansion of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park (PNKB) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the intervening years, the Batwa experienced decades of discrimination, landlessness, and high levels of mortality as they lived in informal settlements on the outskirts of the PNKB. The case was brought by Minority Rights Group (MRG) and Environnement, Ressources Naturelles et Developpement (ERND) on behalf of the Batwa community after years of struggle in the DRC’s domestic legal system brought no relief for the continual human rights violations. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights found that the Democratic Republic of Congo’s forcible eviction of the Batwa from their ancestral lands within the Kahuzi-Biega National Park (PNKB) was a violation of their human rights under the African Charter. The ruling recognizes the Batwa as the best guardians of biodiversity and requires the DRC government to issue a full apology and allow the Batwa to return to their ancestral lands, among other recommendations. The Commission also found that fortress conservation models excluding indigenous peoples from their lands without their free, prior and informed consent are not effective for fighting climate change in Africa.
