Four NGOs recently appealed to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) to have their concerns about a contentious oil pipeline heard on merit. The landmark case, filed four years ago, had previously been dismissed on technical grounds.<\/p>\n
The four East African NGOs \u2014 the Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights (CEFROHT) and the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), both from Uganda, Natural Justice (Kenya), and the Centre for Strategic Litigation (Tanzania) \u2014 first filed their case with the EACJ in November 2020. They urged the court to halt the construction of the 1,443-kilometer (897-mile) East African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) that\u2019s designed to transport oil from Uganda to Tanzania.<\/p>\n
The NGOs argue that EACOP violates human rights and environmental laws of both countries and was moving forward without adequate compensation and public participation, while displacing local communities and harming the ecosystems they depend on.<\/p>\n
EACOP is led by French oil giant TotalEnergies and involves state-owned companies from China, Uganda and Tanzania.<\/p>\n
At the first hearing in November 2023, the court dismissed the EACOP case, agreeing with the governments of Tanzania and Uganda that the NGOs had exceeded the objection period by not filing their complaint within 60 days of the 2017 agreements. However, David Kabanda, a human rights lawyer from CEFROHT representing the NGOs, previously told Mongabay they learned the details about the project only after a 2020 media briefing by the Ugandan government.<\/p>\n
The NGOs filed an appeal against the dismissal, arguing for the case to be heard on its merit. But the appeal\u2019s first hearing in November 2024 was postponed on technical grounds.<\/p>\n
With the appeal submissions now complete, if the judgment favors the NGOs, the case will go back to the lower EACJ court to be heard on merit, Kabanda said at a press conference after the hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe [appellate] court has told us that they would be summoning us for the judgment, which we anticipate seeing in about two months,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The lower court, while dismissing the case during the first hearing, had also imposed costs on the NGOs to be awarded to the respondents, including the governments of Uganda and Tanzania. Kabanda said they\u2019ve also appealed for those costs to be set aside.<\/p>\n
Dickens Kamugisha, CEO of AFIEGO, said at the press conference that neither the EACJ nor the national courts of Tanzania and Uganda have previously imposed costs on appellants in public interest cases. If the court still wants the appellants to bear the cost, Kamugisha said they\u2019re \u201cvery confident\u201d the communities \u201cwill organize and pay,\u201d and that costs shouldn\u2019t stop others from fighting injustice in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that what matters the most is that this project is not complying with the laws of the region,\u201d Kamugisha said. \u201cIf we can successfully show that there\u2019s no compliance, we are 100% sure the project can be stopped anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article<\/a> by Shreya Dasgupta was first published by Mongabay.com on 27 February 2025. Lead Image: Lions are found along EACOP route. Image by Rhett A. Butler\/Mongabay.<\/i><\/p>\n Help to protect wildlife by making a monthly donation of as little as $1.<\/p>\n Your donation will support vital conservation projects<\/a>.<\/p>\nWhat you can do<\/h2>\n