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The Observatory has been
informed of the alarming crackdown on environment and human rights
defenders involved in defending environmental and land rights in the
context of oil development projects, in particular the abduction,
arbitrary arrest and detention, judicial, physical and moral
harassment of eleven human rights defenders, between May 27, 2024 and
June 5, 2024.
On June 5, 2024, Mr
Adriko
Sostein,
environment and human rights defender and community member from
Kaseeta Parish, Kikuube district in Uganda, was arrested by the
officer in charge of the Kaseeta police and a team of Kikuube
district police. He was detained at the Central police station in
Kikuube and was released on bond on June 6, 2024. Mr
Julius
Tumwiine
and
Mr
Ezama
Chirilo,
two other human rights defenders, faced threats and judicial
harassment from the police in Kikuube, which was seen surrounding
Julius Tumwiine's house on June 5, 2024, at a time when he was not
home. Both were allegedly wanted by the police, and consequently
Ezama Chirilo reported voluntarily at the police station in presence
of a lawyer, where he was put on police bond.
On
May 29, 2024, Adriko Sostein, Julius Tumwiine and Ezama Chirilo, held
a peaceful protest and marched to deliver a petition to Daqing oil
construction in Kikuube. Daqing is a Chinese company in charge of
construction of the feeder pipeline linking Kingfisher oil fields to
the main oil infrastructure in Hoima.1
The petition demanded respect for the human
rights of local communities and a halt to oil development.
On
June 1st,
2024, the Resident District Commissioner – the representative of
the executive branch and head of security at district level who is
nominated by the President of Uganda – called the three defenders
who went to deliver this petition and summoned them to a meeting at
his office the next day. In the meeting on Sunday, June 2nd, 2024,
the Resident District Commissioner made intimidating comments about
their human rights activities and pressured them into writing an
"apology letter" to him stating that they would never
engage in such an activity again.
On June 4, 2024, Mr
Stephen
Kwikiriza
was reportedly abducted by the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF).
At the moment of his abduction, Mr Kwikiriza sent a message to his
colleague at Environmental
Governance Institute (EGI),
confirming his abduction by UPDF officers in civilian clothes. At the
date of the publication of this Urgent Appeal, no further
communication has been received and Mr Kwikiriza’s whereabouts and
condition are unknown.
Working as an Observer
with EGI in the area of Kingfisher, Mr Kwikiriza is an environment
and human rights defender dedicated to promoting the sustainable
management of natural resources in the context of developing oil
projects in the region. Due to his work as a defender, Mr Kwikiriza
had previously received threats from the UPDF deployed at Kingfisher
project area.
On May 27, 2024, Messrs
Bob
Barigye -
member of the African Initiative on Food Security and Environment -
Uganda (AIFE-Uganda) -
Noah Katiiti,
Newton
Mwesigwa,
Julius
Byaruhanga
- Sector Coordinator for Oil, Gas, Minerals and Professional Services
at the Uganda Private Sector Foundation - Desire
Ndyamwesigwa,
Raymond
Binntukwanga,
and Jealousy
Mugisha Mulimbwa -
pastor and community leader - were arrested in Kampala, Uganda, by
the Ugandan police during a peaceful demonstration outside the
Chinese Embassy. They were held in custody at the Jinja Road Police
station in Kampala and charged with unlawful assembly. On May 28,
2024, the seven defenders were released, but at the date of
publication of this Urgent Appeal, they are still under investigation
and under police bond, thus being required to report to the police
whenever they are summoned to. On June 6, 2024, they reported to the
police and their bond was extended until June 20, 2024.
The peaceful
demonstration was part of simultaneous protests organised in Uganda
and Tanzania by civil society groups working with people affected by
the East
African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project
in the two countries. The EACOP is jointly owned and operated by
French oil major TotalEnergies, Chinese state-owned enterprise CNOOC,
and Tanzanian and Ugandan state owned oil companies. The aim of the
demonstration was to hand over to officials of the Chinese embassy an
open letter highlighting the economic, social and environmental
impacts of the oil projects. The letter, signed by a number of
Ugandan and Tanzanian civil society organisations and
project-affected communities, expressed their concern at Chinese
President Xi Jinping's support for the EACOP project. The
demonstrators did not have the opportunity to meet with the Chinese
officials.
These arbitrary arrests
and detentions, judicial, physical and moral harassment, and legal
proceedings are part of a persistent and intense repressive trend
against environmental and human rights defenders and affected
communities in the context of oil development projects in Uganda. The
Observatory recalls that Mr
Jelousy Mugisha Mulimbwa had already been arbitrarily arrested
on December 14, 2019, following his testimony in a trial against the
oil company Total (now TotalEnergies) in France in December 2019. Bob
Barigye was also arbitrarily arrested on January 27, 2023 and
released on bail on January 24, 2023, while organising a debate on
the impact of the EACOP on the environment, human rights and the
economy. In addition to the violations mentioned above, the
Observatory reported since 2020 numerous cases of legal and judicial
harassment and intimidation against
individuals
and organisations
defending
human and environmental rights in the context of oil project
development affecting local populations’ well-being and
biodiversity. The Observatory also reported in September 2020 the
arbitrary
detention
in Uganda of nine environmental human rights defenders mobilised to
denounce the impact on ecosystems of investment projects by the sugar
industry, as well as the social and environmental consequences of oil
projects in the region, including those by TotalEnergies and CNOOC
(Kingfisher, Tilenga and EACOP).
The Observatory strongly
condemns the arbitrary arrest and detention and the judicial
harassment of Adriko Sostein, Julius Tumwiine, Ezama Chirilo,
Stephen
Kwirkiriza,
Bob
Barigye, Noah Katiiti, Newton Mwesigwa, Julius Byaruhanga, Desire
Ndyamwesigwa, Raymond Binntukwanga, and Jealousy Mugisha Mulimbwa,
which only appear to be aimed at restricting their freedom of
peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, and at hindering their
legitimate human rights activities.
The Observatory urges
the Ugandan authorities to immediately release Stephen Kwikiriza and
calls on them to put an end to any act of harassment, including at
the judicial level, and any act of intimidation against the eleven
above-mentioned human rights defenders, as well as against all human
rights defenders in the country.
The Observatory also
calls on the Ugandan authorities to guarantee in all circumstances
the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and the freedom of
expression as enshrined in international human rights law, and in
particular Article 19 and 21 of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Uganda is a party.
1The
East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is a projected 1,443 km
pipeline set to transport oil drilled in the Lake Abert area, to the
port of Tanga in Tanzania, where it will be exported.
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