Arrests and intimidation over EACOP

New Human Rights Watch report documents outcry from Ugandan ‘environmental defenders’

Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Environmental defenders and anti-fossil fuel activists in Uganda continue to face arbitrary arrests, harassment, and threats for raising concerns over a planned oil pipeline popularly known as EACOP, according to a new report published Nov.2 by Human Rights Watch.

The 22-page report titled, “‘Working On Oil is Forbidden’: Crackdown Against Environmental Defenders in Uganda” catalogues the Ugandan government’s restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly related to oil development, including the planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

According to Human Rights Watch which describes itself as “an independent, international organisation that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all,” the crackdown on environmental defenders in Uganda has created a chilling effect that stifles free expression about one of the most controversial fossil fuel projects in the world.

“The government of Uganda should immediately end arbitrary arrests of anti-oil pipeline activists and protect their right to exercise freedom of expression, in accordance with international human rights norms,” said Felix Horne, the senior environment researcher at Human Rights Watch.

EACOP’s environmental footprint

The EACOP is one of the most significant fossil fuel infrastructure projects under development globally. It is designed with hundreds of wells, hundreds of kilometres of roads, camps and other infrastructures, and a 1,443-kilometre pipeline, the longest heat-traced crude oil pipeline in the world, connecting oilfields in western Uganda with the Indian Ocean port of Tanga in eastern Tanzania.

French super major, TotalEnergies, is the operator and majority shareholder, alongside China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), and the state-run Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) and the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC).

Following sustained pressure and opposition to the construction of the pipeline from civil society organisations and climate activists in Uganda and around the world, many financial institutions and insurance companies have made a public commitment to not support the pipeline.

“The construction and operation of EACOP poses grave environmental risks, human rights risks, and contributes to the global climate crisis.” Horne said. “Financial institutions and insurance companies should avoid supporting the Ugandan oil pipeline due to the devastating impacts of fossil fuels on climate change as well as future risks of serious human rights impacts.”

Financing for the pipeline is yet to be finalised, although in March, this year, a TotalEnergies official said the company anticipates funding to be in place by the end of 2023.

Although the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s leading authority on climate science, and others have warned that no new fossil fuel projects should be built if the world is to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the Ugandan government and international oil company partners appear determined to construct the pipeline.

The pipeline has supporters who say the EACOP and other oil projects were approved by the parliament of Uganda and are projects of a sovereign country based on environmental and social impact studies.

“Anything to do with challenging their approval is an affront to the independence of this House and we cannot take it lightly,” said Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa, during one of the debates.

Ugandan environmental and human rights activists have criticized the project because of what they say are the risks it poses to the environment, local communities, and its contribution to climate change. They criticize the government for approving the project and international companies involved in its finance, insurance, construction, or operation. The activists say over 100,000 people in Uganda and Tanzania will lose their land for the oil developments, although they have been compensated.

For this report, Human Rights Watch interviewed 31 people in Uganda between March and October 2023, including 21 environmental defenders.

Diana Nabiruma, from the African Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), one of the local NGOs that have consistently opposed the project in favour of renewable projects, was interviewed.

“If you’re campaigning to stop the expansion of the fossil fuel industry, it is very difficult. More so, if you’re working in a country such as Uganda where the civic space is repressed,” she told Human Rights Watch.

“When it is realised that arrests cannot stop you, then intimidation, threats, delegitimization and other forms of activities that aim at stopping the work that we do are perpetrated against us.”

The report says at least 30 protesters and human rights defenders, many of them students, have been arrested in Kampala and other parts of Uganda since 2021, when the government allegedly heightened a crackdown on environmental and human rights organisations. Up to 54 organisations were suspended under the NGO law.

Many interviewees told Human Rights Watch that they were detained for several days in police stations or unknown places before releasing them without charge. At the time of writing (of the report), there are several cases against protesters before the courts on the spurious charge of “common nuisance” under the Penal Code, the report authors said.

Police in 2021 raided the offices of some civil society organizations who work on EACOP, in the capital, Kampala, and in the two towns closest to the oilfields, Hoima and Buliisa. Such raids often involve police confiscating computers, taking registration documents, closing offices, and threatening staff.

Staff at these NGOs described the impact these actions have on their ability to effectively carry out important monitoring and documentation work. They told Human Rights Watch of difficulties in communicating with the media, staff retention, having to be less public in their advocacy, and softening messages to avoid harassment.

One staff member described how his organization was branded as “anti-government” and “anti-development” by security and government officials for raising concerns about EACOP, while other organisations described a growing difficulty in securing funding or other forms of support for their activities.

One environmental defender, Maxwell Atahura, described his 2021 arrest in Buliisa: “(The police) were asking me questions about oil … at a certain point they were calling me a terrorist, saboteur of government programmes…. At the end they wrote on the police bond unlawful assembly.” Atahura also said that he has received threats and that he eventually relocated to the capital city, Kampala, to secure his safety.

Safety in numbers

Local organisations that continue to work on the oil issue told Human Rights Watch that they do so under intense pressure from government and security officials who press them via phone and in person to halt their oil sector activities.

Given few options to influence government policy, some Ugandan nongovernmental groups alongside their international partners have filed court cases in France against TotalEnergies. According to the report, two Ugandans who travelled to France for a court hearing in December 2019 have since experienced continuous harassment by security and government officials since their return.

This is the second time this year Human Rights is issuing a report detailing human rights grievances surrounding the EACOP. In July, Human Rights Watch reported human rights violations associated with the pipeline’s land acquisition project including inadequate compensation, and constant pressure from officials; threats of court action and threats from local government and security officials for those who have rejected compensation offers.

According to Human Rights Watch, local civil society groups have become invaluable in assisting people whose land has been acquired for the oil developments to understand the compensation process and the various avenues open to them to secure fair compensation.

Govt should drop criminal charges

In its recommendations, Human Rights Watch wants the Government of Uganda to drop all criminal charges against climate activists, human rights defenders and others expressing concern over EACOP.

It also wants the government to end arbitrary arrests and prosecutions of human rights defenders, anti-EACOP activists, and peaceful protesters and to allow them to exercise freedoms of association, assembly, and expression, in accordance with international human rights norms.

It says the government should make clear that any person found threatening, intimidating, or otherwise restricting human rights defenders, civil society organizations, protesters, or others from peacefully expressing views on oil development or any other government policy will be held to account, including under the Human Rights (Enforcement) Act.

“Cease use of the NGO Act and the Public Order Management Act to stifle legitimate operations of civil society organizations,” HRW says. It also wants the government to hold regular meetings with civil society organisations doing activism around the oil sector.

TotalEnergies’ response

In an Oct. 23 letter to Human Rights Watch, TotalEnergies said they recognise “the importance of protecting Human Rights Defenders and do not tolerate any attacks or threats against those who peacefully and lawfully promote Human Rights in relations to their activities.”

But HRW wants TotalEnergies to “communicate, in public and private, to the government of Uganda that it will not tolerate threats of any type to human rights defenders working on oil issues and urge the government to drop spurious charges against human rights defenders, climate activists, and others expressing concern over EACOP who have been charged for exercising their freedoms of assembly and expression.”

Human Rights Watch has also written to Uganda’s National Bureau for Nongovernmental Organizations, a semi-autonomous agency under the Internal Affairs Ministry, the Internal Security Organization (ISO), and the Uganda Police Force, but none responded.

Human Rights Watch has also asked the financial institutions and insurance companies considering providing support for fossil fuel development in Uganda to publicly commit to not providing finance, insurance, and other forms of support for the development of EACOP or associated projects.

For Diana Nabiruma of AFIEGO, the international community should not stop at stopping fossil fuel projects. “It’s not enough for them to take away funding from the fossil fuel sector,” she says.

“They must ensure that the funding that has been going to that sector flows into renewable energy and other green economic sectors so that Ugandans and people elsewhere can prosper while conserving nature.”