Civil Society Organizations demand justice for Ugandan community members whose lands are grabbed by agribusiness company Agilis Partners Limited

36 CSOs claim 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.

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, 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...