The criminalization of Ugandans protesting the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP)

Case

Last Case Update

May 17, 2024

Overview

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These cases concern violations of the freedom of assembly and the freedom of expression in Uganda, where environmental defenders protesting the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) have faced criminal charges for peacefully demonstrating against the project.

Summary

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The Ugandan government is cracking down on peaceful protests against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), a planned 900-mile pipeline across Uganda and Tanzania. Critics of the project have denounced EACOP for the devastating environmental damage and human rights violations that are expected in its wake. Communities living along the proposed pipeline route have already experienced severe disruption as the project’s developers have seized land without proper compensation and displaced thousands of people to construct the pipeline.

Ugandan authorities are criminalizing anti-EACOP protestors and employing excessive use of force against them. Thus far, UN special rapporteurs have identified approximately 30 human rights defenders and 20 NGOs that work with communities affected by the EACOP project that have been reportedly “subjected to surveillance, smear campaigns and threats.” Many have been subject to arbitrary arrests and detention while holding peaceful demonstrations against the EACOP project, with reports that some were held in custody longer than the permitted 48 hours, and were not allowed family contact or access to legal support. As the UN special rapporteur for human rights defenders stated, “[a] pattern is emerging from Uganda in which students who are peacefully advocating for the protection of human rights and the mitigation of climate change are being violently arrested and criminalised . . . with impunity.”

Several groups of activists have been criminalized while protesting the EACOP project. For example, in November and December of 2023, protestors from two climate activist groups, Students Against EACOP Uganda and Justice Movement Uganda, were arrested during separate #stopEACOP protests in Kampala, Uganda. The activists were charged with incitement to violence and common nuisance, respectively. Four of the protestors from Justice Movement Uganda – Nicholas Lutabi, Jacob Lubega, Shafik Kalyango, and Abdul Aziz Bwete – were violently beaten by police armed with guns, teargas, and batons. They were detained at the central police station for four nights, without access to an attorney or medical attention, before being transferred to the overcrowded Luzira maximum security jail where they suffered further abuse. In addition to sustaining multiple injuries from the police beatings, the students contracted infectious diseases including malaria and typhoid from the conditions at the Luzira jail. They were eventually released on bail on 10 January 2024. The trials against them commenced on 7 February 2024 and were adjourned until 12 March 2024, at which point it was adjourned for a second time. The first hearings were held on 17 April 2024 and the next hearings will be on 17 May 2024.

In a statement to the press, the attorney representing these protestors, Ronald Samuel Wanda, explained that “[i]t is not normal to detain suspects for even a day for a common nuisance charge.” He further highlighted how these arrests are arbitrary, stating that “[a]rresting those protesting peacefully demonstrates that the government of Uganda does not respect its own constitution.”

Others, like prominent human rights and environmental defender Bob Barigye, have been repeatedly targeted while protesting against the EACOP project. In December 2022, Barigye was arrested, interrogated, and detained along with three other climate activists at a protest against EACOP. He was charged with “inciting violence” and “common nuisance.” The case was dropped six months later.

Not long after, on 24 January 2023, Barigye was again arrested when the police blocked the venue of a debate he was organizing on the environmental, human rights, and economic impact of EACOP. He was violently beaten, charged with “obstruction of a police officer on duty,” and detained for four days before being released on police bond. After he was released, he sought medical care and was diagnosed with a mild haemorrhage from bruises to his left elbow and an injury in his left leg as a result of the police beatings. The charges were again dropped months later on 1 March 2023. Most recently, on 11 July 2023, Barigye was arrested for a third time after protesting against EACOP in Kampala, Uganda. He is currently on police bond.

Context

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The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is a US$5billion fossil fuel project backed by French conglomerate TotalEnergies, the governments of Uganda and Tanzania, and a Chinese national oil company. It is a proposed 900-mile (1,443 km) pipeline that will transport crude oil from western Uganda to the port of Tanga on the eastern coast of Tanzania. The project is expected to generate an estimated 379m tons of CO2 over its 25-year lifespan, which is more than the UK’s national emissions in 2022.

In addition to the criminalization of protestors by the Ugandan government, activists in Tanzania have likewise been targeted by the Tanzanian government for expressing criticism of the EACOP project. Amidst a climate of repression in Tanzania, those civil society organizations and defenders that have criticized the EACOP project have been “threatened, arrested, and harassed by authorities.” After nine people affected by the project were repeatedly summoned to the police station and interrogated for several hours about their activities, an association of 78 civil society organizations expressed concerns that there has been an escalation in intimidation tactics used by the government to silence protestors. The corporate backers of the EACOP project have also contributed to this climate of repression. An investigation by Global Witness has implicated TotalEnergies in ongoing intimidation of and reprisals against communities affected by EACOP.

The crackdown on human rights and environmental defenders protesting EACOP in Uganda and Tanzania is emblematic of increasing attacks on climate activists around the world who are peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly to fight for an equitable and sustainable future. The situation of defenders in Uganda and Tanzania is part of a documented growing trend of governments criminalizing environmental defenders to repress civic space, which the UN special rapporteur for environmental defenders under the Aarhus Convention has identified as a “major threat to democracy and human rights.”

The outcomes of the criminal cases against the protestors in Uganda, outlined above, may affect regulation and social awareness of the EACOP project beyond the specific cases. If these cases were dismissed, there would be a material impact on the protestors by ensuring their freedom. If they so desired, they could continue to peacefully exercise their rights by protesting against EACOP and/or seek reparations for the violations already committed against them when the police used excessive violence to arbitrarily arrest and detain them. If the courts do not dismiss the case but instead pursue criminal punishment, this would contribute to the chilling of civic space in the country and be a further violation of international human rights law.

It is also possible that the outcome of these cases could impact the political will of the Ugandan government to continue with the EACOP pipeline, as well as increase public awareness of the project. As evidenced by coverage from international media, prominent human rights organizations, and various UN special rapporteurs, the international community is already closely monitoring the trials against these and other anti-EACOP protestors in Uganda and Tanzania.

The European Union is also paying close attention. As early as September 2022, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning EACOP and expressing “grave concern” about human rights violations occurring in Uganda and Tanzania that were linked to the project. These included “wrongful imprisonment of human rights defenders, the arbitrary suspension of NGOs, arbitrary prison sentences and the eviction of hundreds of people from their land without fair and adequate compensation.”

A global alliance of human rights and environmental defenders, local groups and communities, and African and international organizations have come together to campaign against EACOP, including the following organizations: 350Africa; African Initiative on Food Security and Environment; African Institute for Energy Governance; Centre for Food and Adequate Living Rights-Uganda; Centre for Strategic Litigation; End Plastic Pollution; Extinction Rebellion; Fridays for Future Uganda; Inclusive Development International; Indigenous Environmental Network; Justice Movement Uganda; Natural Justice; Students Against EACOP; and Youth for Green Communities, among others.

Relevant Links

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Litigating Organizations

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Ronald Samuel Wanda, Managing Partner, Matsiko Wanda & Arinda Advocates

Aryampa Brighton, Chief Executive Officer, Youth for Green Communities and Advocate with Kamu Advocates and Solicitors

Eron Kiiza, Co-Founder and CEO, Kiiza & Mugisha Advocates