Uganda & Tanzania: European Parliament concerned about East African Crude Oil Pipeline-related environmental & human rights violations
"Violations of human rights in Uganda and Tanzania linked to the investments in fossil fuels projects"
The European Parliament,...having regard to its previous resolutions on Uganda and on Tanzania,...having regard to the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders and the EU Human Rights Guidelines on Freedom of Expression Online and Offline...
...whereas nearly 118 000 people are affected by these oil projects: some have had their homes destroyed to facilitate the construction of access roads or the processing plant, others have had all or part of their land requisitioned and have lost the free use of their properties and thus their means of subsistence, without prior payment of fair and adequate compensation; whereas the compensation paid is often far too low to allow farmers whose land has been expropriated to buy comparable land on which to continue farming, and whereas this low compensation therefore seriously and, a priori, definitively impairs their income and living conditions, such that relocated people can no longer generate sufficient income to feed their families, send their children to school or access health care; whereas the rights of indigenous communities to free, prior and informed consent are not being respected in accordance with international standards;
1. Expresses its grave concern about the human rights violations in Uganda and Tanzania linked to investments in fossil-fuel projects, including the 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; expresses its concerns about the arrests, acts of intimidation and judicial harassment against human rights defenders and NGOs working in the oil and gas sector in Uganda; asks the authorities to ensure human rights advocates, journalists, and civil society groups are free to carry out their work in at-risk communities and calls for all arbitrarily arrested human rights defenders to be released immediately;
2. Calls on the governments of Uganda and Tanzania to initiate concrete measures to ensure that authorities, security forces and policies respect and comply with human rights standards; insists, in particular, that the EU and other international actors maintain and strengthen their integrated and coordinated approach on Uganda, which includes the promotion of good governance, democracy and human rights, and the strengthening of the justice system and rule of law, and urges the EU and its Member States to raise these concerns through public and diplomatic channels; urges the Ugandan Government to reauthorise the 54 NGOs that have been arbitrarily closed or suspended, and to grant those people who have been displaced without receiving fair and adequate compensation access to their land;