The following is based on a communication sent by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other UN experts to the Government of Uganda on 24 October 2023. The communication remained confidential for 60 days before being made public, giving the Government time to reply. Regrettably, the Government did not reply within this timeframe. If a reply is received, it will be posted on the UN Special Procedures communications database.
At the time of publication, the case against the four human rights defenders remains open, with them having appeared in court twice to date. Their next court date is scheduled for 29 January 2024.
This is a shorter version of the original communication.
BACKGROUND
Topic: the violent arrest and alleged arbitrary detention of human rights defenders advocating for a just transition from the use of fossil fuels.
Students against EACOP is a non-violent movement aiming at achieving climate justice through outreach, education, peaceful protests and civil disobedience. They formed in October 2022 and are currently active in 12 universities in Uganda. Messers. Kajjubi Marktum, Lyazi Alex Wasswa, Akiso Benjamin and Abduh Twaibu Magambo are students, human rights defenders, and members of the group.
ALLEGATIONS
On 15 September 2023, as part of a global mobilization for a just transition from a fossil fuel-based energy system, Students Against EACOP, including Messrs. Marktum, Wasswa, Benjamin and Magambo, carried out a peaceful march in Kampala to the Ugandan Parliament. Once arrived at the Parliament, they sought to enter the building to deliver a petition calling on the legislators to end investments in fossil fuels projects, including the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), and to redirect these funds to clean and renewable sources of energy. The human rights defenders also called on the Parliament to take a central role in the investigation of human rights violations linked to fossil fuel projects, with the petition stating the following: “In this our terse petition, as students and young people of this country, we are the direct and major victims of climate crisis living in a country that is among the most affected by climate change yet one of the least prepared to respond and tackle its effects.”
Upon requesting entry to Parliament to deliver their petition, Messrs. Marktum, Wasswa, Benjamin and Magambo were singled out and set upon by approximately 15 police, who forced them into a holding ‘cooler’ within the Parliament entrance and severely beat them, hitting them in the head with the butts of their guns, and across their ankles with batons, all without explanation. A policeman stepped on the head of one of the defenders while he lay prone on the ground, while another kicked a defender’s knees. At one point, Mr. Magambo was set upon and beaten by seven policemen, leaving him severely injured.
The defenders were eventually put into a police vehicle and driven to Kampala Central Police Station, where they were held for approximately two hours and forced to make written statements under duress. They were subsequently called to the office of the Officer in Charge (OC) at the station and interrogated by the OC and an unidentified man in plain clothes. The interrogation lasted approximately forty minutes and the defenders were asked to share information on their supposed funders. Thereafter, they were taken by foot to Buganda Road Court, where they were told they had been remanded to custody, despite them not having been presented before a magistrate. At no point during these events did the defenders have access to a lawyer. From Buganda Road Court, they were taken to Luzira Maximum Security Prison, where they were held in inhumane conditions, including severe overcrowding.
On 18 September 2023, the human rights defenders were presented in court to respond to the charge of common nuisance, under section 160(1) of the Penal Code. In the course of this hearing, during which the defenders were accompanied by their legal representatives, Mr. Magambo was unable to stand as a result of his assault on the day of his arrest, and an order allowing him to visit a doctor was granted. The case was adjourned to 20 September 2023, when the human rights defenders were released on bail.
This would not be the first instance in which the human rights defenders have faced retaliation in the exercise of their rights. In October 2022, Messers. Marktum, Wasswa and Benjamin were among nine human rights defenders arrested and detained during a peaceful march to the Delegation of the European Union in Uganda, where they were planning to deliver a petition in support of an EU Parliament resolution expressing concern about human rights violations linked to the EACOP project and fossil fuel extraction in Uganda, including retaliation against human rights defenders.
CONCERNS
In the communication, we express our grave concern for the alleged violent arrest, arbitrary detention and charging of Messrs. Marktum, Wasswa, Benjamin and Magambo, which would appear to be a direct act of retaliation for their peaceful advocacy for the protection of human rights and the mitigation of climate change. We emphasise that any arrest or detention as punishment for the legitimate exercise of the rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression is arbitrary.
