Germany and Uganda: Corporate Accountability for Forced Eviction of the villages of Kitemba, Luwunga, Kijunga and Kirymakole in Uganda In April 2012, the GI-ESCR intervened with a Parallel Report to the Human Rights Committee regarding violations of Germany’s extra-territorial obligation to protect human rights by not regulating or holding accountable a German corporation involved in forced evictions in Uganda.

The report covers the forced eviction of the villages of Kitemba, Luwunga, Kijunga and Kirymakole in the Mubende District of Uganda that were carried out in 2001 on behalf of the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe to make way for a coffee plantation.  The Report concludes that Germany violated its extra-territorial obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to protect human rights by failing to regulate Neumann Kaffee Gruppe and for failing to investigate and appropriately sanction Neumann Kaffee Group for its complicity in the forced evictions.  To date those evicted continue to live in extreme poverty due to their forced eviction and have been unable to realize their right to a remedy in either Uganda or Germany.

At its July 2012 session, the Human Rights Committee addressed these concerns in it's List of Issues related to the periodic report of Germany, which is to be considered in October.

The List of Issues contains a groundbreaking recognition of extra-territorial obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, with specific content on the extra-territorial obligation to protect (or ensure) Covenant rights by regulating corporations for activities resulting in human rights violations abroad, as well as creating accountability and remedial mechanisms for such violations. This List of Issues now lays the foundation for future work on extra-territorial obligations under the ICCPR, including at the next session of the Human Rights Committee at which Germany is up for its periodic review.

Here is the relevant paragraph:

17. Please comment on allegations that families forcibly evicted at gunpoint in August 2001 from their homes and lands in Naluwondwa-Madudu, Mubedne District, Uganda to make way for a large coffee plantation owned by Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Neumann Kaffee Gruppe Hamburg continue to live in extreme poverty and explain what the State party has done to investigate the role and responsibility of Neumann Kaffee Gruppe.

Read the Parallel Report HERE.

Read the List of Issues HERE.