Kisoro District, Uganda | 25 July 2025—The Coalition of Pastoralist Civil Society Organisations (COPACSO) successfully convened a strategic, high-level Dialogue on Batwa Land Rights and Restitution in Kisoro District. This pivotal engagement was a direct response to the decades of displacement, cultural erosion, and unaddressed land rights issues faced by the Batwa Indigenous community, who remain marginalized despite a favourable 2021 Constitutional Court ruling that has yet to be implemented.
COPACSO’s proactive leadership in organizing this forum brought together 69 participants, including Batwa elders, youth leaders, civil society, and local officials, ensuring that the dialogue was community-led and focused on actionable outcomes for legal and social justice.
The core purpose of the dialogue was two-fold: to meticulously document the lived experiences and compelling testimonies of eviction and cultural loss, and to harness these powerful narratives to build a unified and effective advocacy front. Crucially, the session systematically gathered detailed and urgent demands for land restitution, cultural preservation, and political inclusion.
Key resolutions championed by the Batwa leadership and supported by COPACSO included the immediate enforcement of the unimplemented 2021 court ruling, the urgent issuance of communal and individual land titles to restore ownership, expansion of land allocation, mandatory sharing of tourism revenue from protected areas, and guarantees of Batwa political representation at all levels of government. The dialogue also placed a strong emphasis on the need to combat the systematic undercounting of the Batwa population in national census data, a failure that perpetually reinforces their invisibility in national planning and resource allocation.
