Gerald Kankya is a Ugandan Human Rights Activists working with local communities negatively impacted by harmful investments.
Gerald is the Inaugural European Union Human Rights Defenders Award winner in Uganda.
Gerald’s work is done under Twerwaneho Listeners Club (TLC) which is a legally registered human rights organization in Uganda.
TLC is born of a history of struggles against unlawful land evictions by the Kingdom of Tooro with a brand slogan ’’let’s defend our rights’’ that later became a name Twerwaneho, with loose association of activists and radio program listeners that later became a fully functional human rights organization.
TLC supports citizens find a voice to tackle harmful investments in their communities.
Mission
TLC promotes good governance and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms of the marginalized and most vulnerable to access and use of natural resources in an equitable and sustainable manner.
Our approach:
1. Litigation
2. Advocacy
3. Capacity building and awareness rising
4. Development of local communities’ potential to realize local resources that facilitate change
Organizational objectives:
Enhance good governance and accountability in the public and private sector involved in both the extractive and non- extractive industry in the Rwenzori region.
Promote the respect of human rights, access to justice and civic participation of the vulnerable communities in the management and utilization of natural resources and environmental conservation
Impact:
Our work has directly impacted on the lives of many disadvantaged vulnerable citizens: Below are some of the examples of our work:
More than 30,000 households evicted from 20 crater lakes for the establishment of commercial fish farming were supported to recover their land and access to important resources like water and fish on the crater lakes of Kabrole District – Uganda.
Provision of legal and advocacy support to more than 5,000 indigenous salt miners, including 3,000 women, 750 elderly persons on the verge of being evicted from Katwe Salt Lake in Kasese District for the establishment of USD 390,000,000 salt factor fronted by a Chinese – Uganda consortium. Rwenzori Shining star Limited, a Chinese – Ugandan Consortium was set up to invest in salt mining and mineral beneficiation at Lake after unlawfully acquiring surface rights to access the lake for exclusive use. The acquisition of surface rights was unlawful and deprived communities of their only livelihood hope
on the lake
Supporting more than 8,000,000 people on Lake Edward and Albert harmed by the AfDB financed Lake Edward and Albert Integrated Fisheries and Water Resources Management Project (Leaf II).
TLC’s efforts are intended to ensure the following:
Increased capacity of the communities to monitor and engage the private/public sector (extractive and non-extractives) on compliance to human rights and environmental guideline/standardsIncreased capacities of communities to meaningfully participate and benefit from the governance and management of natural resources.Increased justice and fairness in land tenure, acquisition, utilization and compensation policies and practicesImproved safety and security of the grassroots human rights defenders especially the women and ethnic minorities defending their communities from harmful investmentsIncreased levels of awareness on human rights and environmental conservation among the communitiesIncreased participation of communities/ citizens in natural resource management