For immediate release

Statement on International Human Rights Day 2024:

Witness Radio calls out the government of Uganda to protect Land and Environmental Rights Defenders and Communities affected by irresponsible land-based investments in Uganda.

Wakiso: Uganda, December 10th, 2024; Anchored to the UN Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups, and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Witness Radio stands together with Land and Environmental Rights Defenders, communities affected by irresponsible land-based investments in Uganda, and Human Rights Defenders across the globe in urging Government of Uganda to uphold and fulfill their obligations to protect and respect human rights in the context of land-based business operations and to ensure access to an effective remedy for individuals and groups affected by such activities, specifically land and environmental rights defenders.

As the world commemorates International Human Rights Day on December 10th, 2024, under the theme;

Our rights, our future, right now, Witness Radio has, in a period of the first 6 months of the year 2024, documented over 360,000 people who faced forceful evictions from the lands that had fed them for generations. This has led to various unbearable environmental and social issues, including violations of community rights during forceful evictions and threats to water sources, the environment, and food security. For instance, the use of agrochemicals in the newly acquired lands has led to pollution, affecting the health of the local communities.

Communities whose rights and interests on land have been forcefully transferred to land-based investors in agribusiness, carbon-offset tree plantations, oil and gas extraction, mining, and infrastructural development projects highlight concerns over food shortages, livelihoods; inadequate compensation; restricted land access; and impacts on children’s education, safety, and welfare, including gender-based violence (GBV) and reproductive health issues.

A recent report by Witness Radio Uganda, released in November 2024, paints a dire picture. Between January and June 2024, more than 360,000 people faced violent evictions, with over 121,000 hectares of land under threat. Nearly four cases of land evictions were reported weekly, affecting approximately 15,126 people and threatening 5,060.12 hectares of land across the country. An estimated 2,160 Ugandans faced evictions daily to give way to investments, with 723 hectares of land at risk of being grabbed daily. This is a crisis that demands immediate attention.

The land grabs are happening on abandoned national ranches and forests, which have long since been settled and farmed by people who came to the area fleeing war and natural calamities in neighboring areas. Although compulsory land acquisition falls within government powers in Uganda, corporations interested in specific land and their agents have been left responsible for managing much of the process and setting compensation values. This has led to serious problems with how the land acquisition process is being conducted, resulting in severe impacts on affected communities, which have infringed on the rights to property, involuntary resettlement, housing, earning a livelihood, food, private and family life, and trading and disposing of natural wealth and resources.

Land and Environmental Rights Defenders are the unsung heroes in this battle for justice. They are often the only force between ordinary people and unbridled power. However, their efforts are frequently met with judicial harassment in the form of criminalization for offensive gatherings, criminal trespass, and strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) to discourage peaceful demonstrations against unlawful evictions, arbitrary detention, and defamation. Their importance cannot be overstated, and the injustices they face are a stark reminder of the need for change.

On this International Human Rights Day, it is crucial that duty-bearers recognize the gravity of the crisis in Uganda. The Government of Uganda should commit to and urgently implement universal respect, protection, and fulfillment of human rights for everyone and everywhere in the country. This is not just a call for action but a demand for justice and equality. We urge the government to act now, before more lives and livelihoods are lost.

Our Rights, Our Future, Right Now

Signed by;

Jeff Wokulira Ssebaggala.

For Witness Radio – Uganda

As civil society organizations that have supported communities around the world to use dispute resolution processes at Independent Accountability Mechanisms (IAMs), we welcome the External Review Team’s recommendations for strengthening the World Bank’s Accountability Mechanism – the Inspection Panel and the Dispute Resolution Service (DRS). This statement focuses primarily on the implementation of dispute resolution since the reforms to accountability at the World Bank added the DRS.

Several of our organizations pushed for the modernization of the Inspection Panel’s toolkit and still believe that communities should be able to access both dispute resolution and compliance review to address concerns with World Bank-supported projects. Our organizations supported the first few cases to go to DRS – Uganda: Second Kampala Institutional and Infrastructure Development Project (KIIDP-2) and Nepal: Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project and its Additional Financing – and cases where dispute resolution was offered, Bolivia: Santa Cruz Road Corridor Connector Project (San Ignacio – San Jose) and Tanzania: Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth Project (REGROW). Our experience with the case handling process thus far demonstrates that meaningful changes need to be made to the Accountability Mechanism, Dispute Resolution Service, and the interaction between compliance review and dispute resolution functions. This review should result in a system that is
more respectful of communities’ agency and leads to the effective resolution of grievances.

Additionally, we agree with the ERT that a comprehensive external review should be conducted within 24-months of the effectiveness of the DRS. We have identified the following challenges that need to be addressed:

Accessibility and Requester Choice

As discussed in the External Review Team’s draft report, requesters, the very people who submit a request for accountability, should have the opportunity to clearly express their desire for the Inspection Panel to conduct compliance review and to therefore reject a dispute resolution process. In this case, the AM Secretary should not then offer a borrower government the option of dispute resolution. Doing so ignores and disrespects requesters’ agency to decide what type of accountability process to pursue, and it also puts impacted requesters at risk of retaliation from a government that has an interest in engaging in dispute resolution.

In the Bolivia case, the AM secretary offered the Bolivian government dispute resolution after the requesters had clearly rejected the option, which put the requesters at risk of retaliation and caused the Bolivian government to delay the Inspection Panel’s access to the country for a site visit. The same issue arose in Tanzania, where the government publicly expressed to the media that it will be pursuing the DR process though the requestors had clearly rejected the option. This caused great concern to the requesters, who have chosen to remain anonymous throughout the process due to fear of retaliation. They were made to believe that their names would be disclosed
and they would be forced to engage with the government, resulting in personal risks to their safety. This also added an unnecessary delay in moving forward with the investigation.

We agree with the ERT’s recommendation: The AM Secretary should offer DR not concurrently to both parties, but first to the requesters. If the requesters after 5 working days decide to proceed with the compliance investigation, they should be allowed to do sowithout any further interruption. In such a case, AM Secretary should not provide
information about DR nor offer DR to the other party.

Power Imbalances Throughout the Dispute Resolution Process.

In the Nepal and Uganda cases, we also noted several instances where the DRS and its mediators’ actions exacerbated power imbalances between the communities and the government. In the Uganda case, there were several instances where the mediators and DRS seemed to defer to the timelines and directions of the government. As discussed in a previous statement, power imbalances were especially stark towards the end of the process, where the government seemed to be directing the process of reaching and signing a final agreement and pushing desperate community members to accept any sort of deal. This situation underscored the need for the DRS to adopt a more balanced approach, ensuring that the community’s voice is equally heard and respected throughout the process. In the Nepal case, the process did not appear free and fair, with mediators appearing to favor the position of the government.

To address these issues, the DRS should implement stronger measures to manage power imbalances. This includes continuous consultations with communities, ensuring their concerns and timelines are given equal weight. Additionally, mediators should be empowered to take a firmer stance when necessary to prevent one party from dominating the process. The DRS should ensure that no single party can unilaterally determine the scope or direction of a dispute resolution meeting, and mediators should be trained to recognize and mitigate power imbalances actively.

Furthermore, the DRS should establish clear protocols to ensure that any decisions made, especially those regarding the finalization of agreements, are done with the full participation and consent of all involved parties. This includes providing ample time for community members to review and understand the terms of any agreement and offering independent legal and advisory support to help them navigate the process.

Exacerbation of Community Conflict

It is not uncommon for individual community members to have differing interests in a dispute resolution process. Mediators must be attuned to these differing interests and proceed in a manner that does not exacerbate community conflict. Unfortunately, in the Nepal and Uganda cases, the DRS and mediators exacerbated tensions in the affected communities. In Uganda, when the elected representatives agreed to terminate the dispute resolution process, the DRS still proceeded with the process with other members of the community.

In Nepal, the agreement facilitated by the DRS has created division within the community and jeopardized communal harmony. It is our perception that the DRS worked with some community members to the exclusion of others, and today, original requesters who opposed elements of the DRS-facilitated agreement or did not sign the agreement face retaliation by other members of the community, as well as by the government. Additionally, we are concerned that the DRS, in an effort to get an agreement, favored the views of community members who were not the original requesters to the Inspection Panel complaint.

Community conflict can be particularly exacerbated in circumstances where the dispute resolution process is restricted to an “All or Nothing” prospect, which increases the stakes of the process. This was unfairly the case in Nepal and Uganda where the AM Secretary refused to allow the prospect of unresolved issues transferring to the Inspection Panel for investigation, despite the fact that the final DRS procedures allow for partial agreements and for unresolved issues being transferred to the Inspection Panel. Going forward, in addition to allowing for partial agreements, we agree with ERT’s recommendation that a provision should be introduced into the AM operating procedures that requesters who originally submitted the request to IPN but then subsequently left the DR process should be given the option of proceeding with a compliance investigation after the DR agreement has been signed. The DRS outcome report should state how many of the requesters who submitted the request for registration signed the DR agreement.

Timelines for Dispute Resolution.

Although concrete timelines for IAM processes are important for ensuring predictability and facilitating the timely resolution of grievances, the strict 18-month timeline for the DRS process put undue pressure on the parties in Uganda to reach an agreement. In that case, this pressure was exacerbated by the unfair limit on partial agreements. In circumstances where communities are negotiating with powerful governments, the pressure to reach any agreement, even if it doesn’t fully address grievances, is made even more stark as the deadline approaches.

We agree with the ERT report’s recommendation to allow for timeline extensions to 20 months, though there may be circumstances where even more time could be constructive.

The 24-month review of the DRS should further explore the timelines issue and what additional flexibility is needed.

Transparency.

As discussed by the ERT’s draft report, the DRS falls far behind other independent accountability mechanisms on the transparency of DR agreements. Again, given power imbalances, transparency of agreements helps keep the parties accountable to the agreement and is important for institutional accountability. In our experience, the DRS seems to confuse transparency of the overall agreement with transparency of commitments to particular individuals (such as compensation amounts), which individuals might prefer to have kept confidential. We agree with the ERT draft report’s recommendation that reporting should specify the issues to which the parties have agreed and those to which they have not.

We are also concerned that the DRS has no fair and predictable process in place for how decisions on confidentiality of agreements should be reached in the first place. In the Uganda case, the decision to keep the specific terms of the agreement confidential was made in the final few days of the negotiations, without some requesters’ involvement and without involvement of requesters’ advisors. Again, given power imbalances, it’s obvious that some communities will
feel pressured to agree to confidentiality of an agreement even when it is against their best interests. We call on the 24-month review to evaluate how these decisions have been reached in practice.

Monitoring

Reaching an agreement is just one step of ensuring the full resolution of grievances. Active monitoring of the full implementation of the agreement is crucial to ensure that each commitment in the agreement is fulfilled in a meaningful way. For cases so far, the DRS has not been transparent about what monitoring–if any–it does. As advisors to the communities in Nepal and Uganda, we have asked for status updates on the agreements’ implementation, and the DRS has not provided us with answers sufficiently. The DRS has at times ignored our requests and at others have offered vague and incomplete answers. The ERT draft report recommends a full
substantive conclusion report after the DRS concludes monitoring. We agree and also call for the DRS to issue interim monitoring reports, drafted in consultation with the parties, so that there will be more transparency into the implementation of the agreement, and course correction can happen if need be.

Role of the Accountability Mechanism Secretary

As we reflect on the shortcomings of the World Bank Accountability Mechanism’s dispute resolution processes thus far, we see the scope and mandate of the Accountability Mechanism Secretary to have contributed to the problems. The root of the problem is the 2020 board resolutions, which establish the AM Secretary position. The board resolutions list a mix of roles for the AM Secretary, which range from substantive to administrative: For example, being tasked with offering dispute resolution to parties and drafting the report transferring a case from DR to
the Inspection Panel on one hand, and overseeing the Inspection Panel’s resources on the other hand.

In practice, it has felt to us that the AM Secretary is more or less acting as the head of the dispute resolution process, with a surprisingly high level of involvement in the Uganda and Nepal cases. For example, the AM Secretary’s decision to restrict the option of unresolved issues going to the Inspection Panel and as well as the problematic offers of dispute resolution in the Bolivia and Tanzania cases.

This presents at least an appearance of a conflict of interest, and perhaps a real one, where the face of the overall Accountability Mechanism is also partial to the dispute resolution process and has an interest in seeing as many cases go to DR and reach an agreement as possible.

The ERT’s draft report should have considered whether the role of the AM Secretary should exist at all and if so, what its mandate should be. We consider the role to be largely redundant and thus would support the elimination of the role. Of the options proposed by the draft report, we prefer Option 3, which would split the Inspection Panel and the DRS into separate entities. We expect that this option would make the AM Secretary role unnecessary.

Additional issues for the 24-month Review

The issues above are non-exhaustive, and the 24-month review of the DRS should comprehensively examine other issues affecting dispute resolution at the Bank, including:

• Selection of mediators
• Development and signing of a framework agreement
• Respecting the role of representatives and advisors
• DRS support for studies and experts to support the dispute resolution process
• Communication with parties
• Perceptions of partisanship of the DRS toward government parties
• Information sharing, access to information, and fact finding
• Retaliation management
• Role of the Accountability Mechanism Secretary in dispute resolution processes
• Coercion of parties to sign dispute resolution agreements
• Introduction of new participants at the signing of agreements
• Effects of the DRS process on local judicial processes and other avenues for justice

Conclusion

We again commend the World Bank Board for initiating this review of the accountability system at the World Bank and the External Review Team for its examination of some of the challenges with the system so far. As advisors to communities who have used the mechanism, we stand ready to provide additional insights into the implementation of the ERT’s recommendations and the review of the DRS. We hope to soon see a system that better respects community agency and better facilitates justice.

Sincerely

Witness Radio

Accountability Counsel

Bank Information Center

Lawyer’s Association for the Human Rights of Nepal’s Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP)

Oakland Institute

Supporters

Bretton Woods Project

Buliisa Initiative for Rural Development Organisation

CEE Bankwatch Network

Fundeps

Green Development Advocates*

International Accountability Project

Jamaa Resource Initiatives

Lumière Synergie pour le Développement

MenaFem Movement for Economic Development and Ecological Justice

Oyu Tolgoi Watch

Peace Point Development Foundation-PPDF

Rivers without Boundaries

* Supporting communities in the Cameroon:

Supporting communities in the Cameroon: Nachtigal Hydropower Project (P157734) and Hydropower Development on the Sanaga River Technical Assistance Project (P157733) case.

Previous Statements:

Joint Statement on World Bank Accountability Mechanism’s Decision to Limit Application of Operating Procedures

Acknowledging Community’s Agreement while Raising Concerns with World Bank’s Dispute Resolution Service

One Year Later, Justice is Delayed: A joint statement on the implementation of the KIIDP-2

Kawaala Community Agreement

Breaking Alert: Barely a year after signing the remedy agreement, World Bank Project-Affected
Persons (PAPs) receive fresh land eviction threats

World Bank Under Fire: Investigation Launched into Bank Financed REGROW Project in Tanzania

Redefining Impartiality: Advocating for a Community-Centered Approach to Accountability Mechanisms

Open Letter

                                                                                                                                                         26th/06/2024.

Mr. Benjamin Prinz,
Managing Director,
Agilis Partners Limited.

Dear Benjamin,

Civil Society Organizations and individuals demand justice for Ugandan community members whose lands were grabbed by agribusiness company Agilis Partners Limited.

Kiryandongo – Uganda; We, the undersigned organizations condemn human rights abuses by the agribusiness company Agilis Partners Limited (owned by two American citizens) and its financial backers against the people of Kiryandongo District where Agilis is establishing a massive industrial farm.

Thousands of people from local and Indigenous communities have been forcefully evicted from their land to make way for Agilis Partners Limited’s large-scale farming operations, in violation of international human rights law. The alarming situation involves severe human rights abuses including forced evictions and lack of prompt, fair, and adequate compensation; violations of Indigenous peoples’ right to free, prior, and informed consent; abduction, arrest, torture, and judicial harassment of human rights defenders, and alleged sexual violence against women and girls, as well as other negative social and environmental impacts.

About Agilis Partners Limited On 9 January, 2018, Agilis Partners Limited was incorporated via registration number R200000884113 as an agribusiness company in Uganda. It is owned and directed by American businessmen and brothers, Philipp Prinz and Benjamin Prinz. Through its subsidiary, Agilis Ranch 20 & 21 Investment Company (Uganda) Limited (registration # 80020000586929), it is pursuing large-scale grain agriculture in Kiryandongo District in Uganda.

In 2019, Agilis Partners received an Award for Corporate Excellence from the US Secretary of State under the category of “Sustainable Operations”. Agilis Partners has also received financial investment and support from various government [1]agencies and private foundations, including the Dutch Oak Tree Foundation, USAID, and the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC).

Since 2022, Agilis Partners Limited has been receiving funding from the World Bank through the International Finance Corporation to create a sustainable business model for 6,000 smallholder farmers and improve smallholders’ maize production, provide them with a digital marketplace, and to improve farming processes of the company.

Purpose of the Fund: The loan from the IFC is for advisory service, and the project description states that the funding aims to improve smallholders’ maize production, provide them with digital marketplace, improve farming processes of the company and, most importantly, to advise Agilis regarding compliance with the IFC’s Performance Standard 5 on Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement.

This support from foreign governments, foundations and multilateral agencies has occurred despite numerous documented incidences of violations of the rights of affected community members:

1. Evictions carried out for Agilis’ agricultural operations have not only displaced hundreds of families but have also led to the arrest and torture of individuals advocating for their land rights. Community leaders and activists who have stood up against these injustices have faced brutal treatment, aimed at silencing their voices and discouraging resistance. This blatant disregard for human rights and the rule of law is unacceptable and demands immediate
attention and action.

2. Residents of Kiryandongo have reported several human rights violations in Kiryandongo district in Kimogola and Kisalanda villages where Agilis has been operating since they evicted people from their land in 2017. People have been murdered, maliciously arrested, and tortured especially those who refused to vacate their land. People’s crops have been destroyed thus increasing the levels of poverty and hunger in the villages since most of the residents living there are farmers. Project-affected persons are not [2] allowed to grow crops on their land thus leading to people sleeping on empty stomachs. People’s cattle are abducted every day only to frustrate them into giving up so that they can leave the land for the company.

3. There is also an increase of sexual abuse amongst women and school-going girls by men working for Agilis who are brought in from distant communities. There are reports of increasing incidence of sexually transmitted diseases and early pregnancies resulting into school dropouts. [3]

Our Call for Action.

Witness Radio and its partners representing PAPs have written to Agilis Partners seeking a dialogue between the company and people who have been harmed on several occasions however, the company has not responded to any of our communications. We call upon civil society organizations globally to urgently join us and demand that Agilis Partners Limited and its financial
backers take immediate action to stop the human rights abuses and harassment committed against community members, engage in dialogue with the communities, and restore the lands to the people that have been displaced.

We also call on the World Bank and the governments of the United States of America and the Netherlands, as key financial backers of Agilis, to support an independent investigation into the human rights abuses committed by the
company. They must act swiftly to end these abuses, support the affected communities in the struggle for land rights, and hold Agilis Partners Limited accountable for all human rights abuses.

We call on the Ugandan government to protect the rights of its citizens, including their right to land, right to defend rights, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, and freedom from torture and inhumane and
degrading treatment.

The safety and rights of land and environmental rights defenders must be ensured by the government. The PAPs have been forcibly evicted, arrested, and subjected to violence. This is failure of the duty of the Ugandan government to protect their rights and the responsibility of Agilis Partners to respect rights.

We call on the United Nations bodies and regional human rights bodies to take action to ensure Agilis Partners fulfills its responsibility to respect human rights, aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Witness Radio Uganda and its partners stand in solidarity with the people of Kiryandongo and will continue to advocate for their rights and justice.
i

Signatories below;

1.  AbibiNsroma Foundation | Ghana
2. Accountability Counsel | USA
3. Agency for Turkana Development Initiatives (ATUDIS) | Kenya
4. Asegis Community Network | Kenya
5. Asia Indigenous Peoples Network on Extractive Industries and Energy (AIPNEE) | Philippines
6. Asociación para la defensa de los derechos naturales | Ireland
7. Benet Mosop Indigenous Community Association
8. Buliisa Initiative for Rural Development Organisation (BIRUDO) | Uganda
9. Chairperson of Oil Workers Rights Protection Organization | Azerbaijan
10. Environmental Defender Law Center | United Kingdom
11. Friends of Lake Turkana | Kenya
12. Global Rights | Global
13. Green Development Advocates | Cameroon
14. Indigenous Peoples Rights International | Philippines
15. International Accountability Project | Global
16. Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre | Nigeria
17. League of Volunteers for Human Rights and Environment (LISVDHE) | Democratic Republic of Congo
18. Menafem | Egypt
19. Oyu Tolgoi Watch | Mongolia
20. PIDP | DRC
21. Policy Action Initiative | Kenya
22. Project on Organizing, Development, Education, and Research (PODER) | Mexico
23. Protection International | Kenya
24. Sengwer Indigenous Peoples Programme | Kenya
25. The Awakening | Pakistan
26. Women for Green Economy Movement Uganda | Uganda
27. Green Advocates International | Liberia
28. Jamaa Resource Initiatives Kenya | Kenya
29. LSD | Senegal
30. Narasha Community Development Group | Kenya
31. Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD) | Sierra Leone
32. Observatoire de la Société Civile Congolaise pour les Minerais de Paix ( OSCMP ) | DRCongo
33. Propurus | Peru
34. Turkana Extractive Consortium | Kenya
35. Asociación ProPurus
36. Witness Radio / Uganda

[1] https://www.common-
fund.org/sites/default/files/Publications/CFC_Annual_Report_2019.pdf
https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadFile?gId=36653
https://www.dobequity.nl/dob-equity-news/dob-equity-sells-shares-in-joseph-initiative
https://common-fund.org/kupanua-project-asili-farms-ltd-uganda
https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00X6RC.pdf
[2] https://www.foodbusinessafrica.com/rwandan-food-distribution-company-get-it-clinches-
investment-from-us-investor-vestedworld/
https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/AS/605676/uganda-grain-development-project-agilis
https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00ZTK7.pdf
https://ug.usembassy.gov/agilis-partners-wins-2019-secretary-of-states-award-for-corporate-
excellence-november-1-2019/