Human rights Class tutorial session – UNILUS

CASE STUDY

An important center for tourism activities and accommodation in the central African country of
Kaya republic is the settlement of Kozu. It is home to approximately 400 settler families.

A short distance from Kozu is the village of Kambo. In contrast to the modern houses in the
settlement, Kambo is little more than a collection of tin shacks. The village is home to
approximately 180 people, more than half of whom are children. Most are Indigenous refugees
who were driven out of Kaya republic after the country’s creation in 1948. The villagers of
Kambo self-identify as Indigenous Peoples. As such, they enjoy certain special rights over the
land they occupy and the natural resources they use to sustain their traditional livelihoods and
way of life.

The settlement is close to several tourist attractions, including the country’s Nature Reserve. This
reserve is managed by a government agency, the Kaya Nature and Parks Authority.

For years, Kaya has been trying to relocate the residents of Kambo against their wishes, to
expand settlements in the region. Amnesty International, the UN and others have documented
how the Kaya government has tried to force the people of Kambo off their land. Firstly, they
have created what the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has
termed a “coercive environment, which functions as a ‘push factor’”. This is intended to make
the lives of the villagers in Kambo as difficult as possible. Measures have included: refusing to
connect homes to the electricity network; confiscating solar panels; failing to ensure adequate
access to water; rejecting applications for building permits; demolishing structures, including
homes and animal shelters; threatening further demolitions; restricting access to roads and
grazing land by creating settlements; restricting access to further grazing lands by creating
military areas and the country’s Nature Reserve; denying people permits to work in settlements;
and failing to protect the community from intimidation and attacks by other settlers.

In addition, the Kaya government has directly ordered the demolition of Kambo on the grounds
that villagers did not acquire relevant building permits. The government has done this without
implementing any of the legal safeguards prescribed by international law to protect the right to
adequate housing, such as giving them enough notice, prior consultations and alternative
adequate accommodation.

Since 2009, the Kambo villagers have fought this through the Kaya courts. However, on 24 May
2018, the Supreme Court ruled that demolitions could go ahead despite the government’s failure
to guarantee minimal due process safeguards and avoid forced evictions. The village is now
facing demolition and the forcible transfer of its residents to make way for further illegal
settlements. The demolition order includes the village’s school, which provides education for
170 Kambo children. If implemented this will result in human rights violations for the people of
Kambo.

Kaya is a member of the AU as well as a state party to the African Charter on Human and
People’s Rights and as well as the Protocol to the African Charter establishing the African Court
on Human and People Rights. One of the villagers in Kambo is your friend and has come
complaining to you because you are a human rights specialist who has visited them and seeks
your advice. Help your friend on what to do and highlight all human rights violations done or
about to be done by the Kaya Government.