Since the discovery of oil in Albertine in 2006, land conflicts have emerged in the Albertine region of Uganda, where unscrupulous investors and speculators including foreigners and members of the Ugandan security forces and other powerful elites have grabbed land from local communities, dug oil wells that pollute local farms and forests, and displaced rural people to areas where they struggle to survive

Civil society organizations and activists have been pushing for land reform that would recognize, protect, and reinforce the land rights of all citizens. Women’s rights activists particularly have been at the center of this struggle, demanding greater equality for women under the law in terms of their rights to own, inherit, and sell land 

Indigenous communities that depend on their ecological environment are often disregarded by corporations and governments who exploit the resources of the territories in which they live

The Ugandan government has used the law to restrict the work of activists by shutting down NGOs, and stopping peaceful demonstrations for environmental and social justice. Activism has prompted the government to develop/deploy surveillance technologies in monitoring communications, censoring digital information, and cracking-down on Environmental and Human Rights Defenders 

The Women Environmental Human Rights Defenders’ work is plagued by threats, assaults, sexual harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention, extrajudicial surveillance, and even death threats and murder.