Structural Violence and Human Rights Gaps in Uganda's Refugee Settlements

Author: Winnie Wothaya Murigu

July 24, 2026

Nakivale Settlement, Uganda [Image credit: Winnie Murigu]

Introduction

Amina (not her real name) studied for a degree in pedagogy in the Democratic Republic of Congo and worked as a teacher before fleeing due to the ongoing war. When she arrived in Uganda, an English-speaking country, her academic credentials, which were in French, could not be used, and there was no mechanism in the settlement to help her validate her skills. No prior skills recognition process is offered. Legally, she has a right to work, but in reality, there is no practical pathway to apply her skills to survive. Today, she does casual labor when she can find it, working below her qualifications and earning far below what she needs.

Amina's experience reflects a contradiction in Uganda's refugee protection rights. Uganda has been hosting refugees since the 1940s and is regarded as one of the countries in Africa with a progressive legislative framework and settlement system. The law grants refugees the right to work, access to land, free movement, and access to public social services, including health and education, to enhance their self-reliance. However, even though these rights exist, the structures needed to make them a reality are lacking. 

The gap between legal promises and structural support is not a failure of implementation. Rather, it is a structural feature embedded in the system and reproduced through everyday decisions about funding procedures and distribution practices. Many refugees continue to experience conditions that undermine their dignity, the ability to exercise rights guaranteed by law, and their well-being. This mismatch is what Johan Galtung (1969) calls structural violence, since it prevents refugees from meeting their basic needs and achieving social integration (Khasalamwa-Mwandha, 2021). Galtung demonstrates harm not as in acts of direct physical violence but in concealed, normalized, and often invisible forms of violence, with no single perpetrator but within social structures that maintain an equal power relation (Burton et al., 2020; Sinha et al., 2017). Consequently, this study examines how structural violence manifests across aid dependency, livelihood insecurity, donor funding, and gendered experiences of the refugees.

Uganda as a Safe Refuge

Uganda currently hosts over 2.2 million refugees and asylum seekers (UNHCR, 2025), and its open-door policy has been internationally recognized. By incorporating the comprehensive refugee response framework into its national systems, the nation has adopted policies that emphasize inclusion, self-reliance, and local integration. Uganda ratified the 1969 OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, as well as the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.  Refugee rights are governed by the Refugee Act of 2006, its 2021 amendment, and the Refugee Regulations of 2010.

The Office of the Prime Minister of Uganda and the UNHCR collaborated to establish the Self-Reliance Strategy (SRS), designed to foster self-sufficiency among refugees. The SRS's primary and overall objectives are to enable refugees and nationals in the region to achieve self-sufficiency to the extent they are capable and to establish mechanisms that will ensure the integration of services for refugees and nationals. In accordance with the SRS, refugees must cultivate their own food, decrease their reliance on humanitarian aid, and become assets to their host countries rather than liabilities. It was anticipated that the majority of refugees would rely on agriculture as a means of subsistence, given that the majority of settlements are located in rural areas. 

Why is the Law Not Enough

Underfunding

Uganda’s refugee operation is among the most severely underfunded globally. A 2025 UNHCR report states that without proper funding, the organization will only be able to provide assistance of 5 USD per month to each refugee, down from 16 USD per month compared to previous years, which is already a difficult situation (UNHCR, 2025). Major donor cuts, including from USAID, have left UNHCR severely underfunded in carrying out its duties. This undermines refugees' enjoyment of the right to an adequate standard of living, such as access to shelter, food, and basic social protection, as stipulated in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. This means that basic human rights cannot be met, which paves the way for hunger, malnutrition, diseases, and death. Underfunding is not a failure of protection; it is structural, produced by donor prioritization decisions made far from the settlements.

Non-recognition of qualifications to work

The self-reliance strategy gives the refugees the right to work. However, many refugees, such as Amina, frequently find themselves ill-equipped to navigate the demands of a new work environment due to their lack of recognition of foreign qualifications and knowledge of the local language. These challenges result in additional layers of disadvantage, such as dependence, which frequently leads to compromised choices of survival, especially for women. Structural violence is evident in institutional barriers that prevent the refugees from converting their human capital into economic opportunities. 

Geographical Isolation

Settlements such as Nakivale are located in very remote regions, and the potential for commercial growth in these isolated areas is limited. This reflects a state strategy for spatial containment by excluding the refugees from productive environments and limiting the refugees' livelihood potential. Refugee-owned enterprises encounter challenges in procuring supplies and connecting with consumers, which is a market exclusion. This continuously creates a structural ceiling on economic agency. Additionally, business proprietors do not have access to mentorship or business development services, which could assist them in acquiring valuable knowledge and abilities. This isolation creates poverty, not as a consequence of individuals, but a system that physically separates refugees from the resources necessary to exercise their rights for self-sufficiency. 

Inadequate Land 

The right to land, another cornerstone of Uganda’s self-reliance approach, faces similar structural constraints. Uganda’s refugee policy includes provisions for land use rights to encourage refugee self-reliance. However, the small size, poor quality, and restricted use of allocated land often prevent refugees from generating sustainable livelihoods. Though the international refugee law does not necessarily guarantee ownership of land, access to productive resources is closely connected to the right to adequate standards of living and economic self-determination. In places like Nakivale, the area is semi-arid with harsh climatic conditions due to prolonged dry seasons. Structural violence arises when refugees are provided with land in theory, but the lack of conditions necessary to use it effectively. 

Housing and Sanitation

During settlement, each refugee household is allocated a piece of land together with poles and tarpaulin to construct their own houses. This becomes a challenge because most of the displaced population is made up of women and children, and it happens that most of the women cannot manage to construct houses on their own. The UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, General Recommendation No. 32 (2014) on gender-related dimensions of refugee status further specifies that host states must ensure that displaced women have access to adequate shelter, water, and sanitation, and that failure to provide it constitutes gender-based discrimination. Amani (not her real name) shared that her husband was killed in war, so she fled with her five young children and stated that she could not manage to construct a house and did not have money to hire someone to make bricks for her, so she ended up begging people to host her. Structural violence is evident in the assumption that all refugees have the same capacity to transform housing materials into habitable homes. 

Gender-Based Violence and Women's Security

Refugee settlements, while intended as sanctuaries, often perpetuate insecurity among women, particularly due to the trauma of previous attacks (Vallejo-Martín et al., 2021). This directly violates women's rights to security and freedom from discrimination as stipulated by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. A 2018 research project by OXFAM found that communal sanitation facilities are viewed as potential danger zones for women and girls, particularly at night. The absence of adequate sanitation infrastructure, such as segregated bathrooms and bathing areas, compels women to utilize communal facilities, exposing them to heightened risks of harassment and attacks (Abuzerr et al., 2025). A lack of proper amenities creates a structural condition that enables violence.

Limited Access to Education

In many refugee settlements, there are shortages of teachers, educational materials, and infrastructure due to overpopulation. Long commute distances to school and overcrowded classes reduce education quality. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989): Article 28 guarantees the right of children to education, but this is yet to be actualized. In Nakivale, there are only two government primary schools, which means overcrowding. The nearest secondary school is many kilometers away, and commuting daily is hard for learners and unsafe for girls. Structural violence occurs when education is formally available, but the conditions necessary for meaningful learning are absent. 

Conclusion

Using Galtung's concept of structural violence, this article has shown that challenges faced by refugees in Ugandan settlements are not isolated individual shortcomings, but rather they are embedded within institutional systems that systematically restrict refugees' ability to exercise rights formally guaranteed to them. Their consequences affect refugees' dignity, well-being, and everyday lives.

Uganda's refugee framework demonstrates that progressive legislation alone cannot guarantee protection. Refugee rights require sustained investment in livelihood opportunities, qualification recognition, healthcare, education, and gender sensitive protection mechanisms without addressing these structural barriers, refugee rights risk remaining legal entitlements that are celebrated internationally but not fully experienced in everyday life. 

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Glossary

• Asylum seeker- Someone who has fled their country and is actively seeking international protection, but whose claim has not yet been legally processed or decided.

• Framework- Foundational structure that guides a study

• Legislation- Refers to the act of creating laws or the body of written laws officially enacted by a governing body. 

• Pedagogy - The field of study that deals with methods of teaching in schools.

• Refugees- The 1951 Refugee Convention defines a refugee as an individual who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons: nationality, religion, race, political opinion,  or membership of a particular group.

• Sanitation- The process of keeping places clean and healthy, such as the sewage system and clean water supply.

• Self-Reliance/Sufficiency - Reliance on one's own ability without need for support.

• Semi-arid- Areas with low rainfall but not completely dry like a desert.

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References

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6. UNHCR. (2025). Nearly 2 million refugees at risk as Uganda emergency funds dwindle and services cut. UNHCR. https://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/nearly-2-million-refugees-risk-uganda-emergency-funds-dwindle-and-services-cut.

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