Statement of International Civil Society Organizations in response to the abduction of Stephen Kwikiriza, community environmental defender in Uganda

This is a joint statement by over 115 international civil society organizations to call upon the Ugandan authorities to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Stephen Kwikiriza, who has been held incommunicado since his abduction by plain clothed officers in Kampala on June 4th 2024.

On June 4th 2024, Stephen Kwikiriza, a member of the Kingfisher community, was abducted in Kampala under alarming circumstances. The Kingfisher project is an oil project in western Uganda on the shores of Lake Albert, developed by the Chinese company China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), of which TotalEnergies is the main shareholder. The project will extract oil to be transported by the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

Stephen went into town that morning. His wife later reported that he was abducted by the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF, Ugandan army) officers in plain clothes. He managed to send a text message to the Environmental Governance Institute (EGI), a local organization supporting project affected persons, confirming his arrest. No further communication has been received from Stephen since. All his known phone numbers are currently off. On June 5th 2024, Stephen’s wife reported the case of the missing person at the Seeta police station, but has yet to hear anything and still no information has been provided about him. The lawyers are finalizing an application for habeas corpus demanding all the security agencies in Uganda produce Stephen in court.

Stephen’s abduction follows previous threats he received from the UPDF deployed in Kingfisher, due to which he had been staying in an undisclosed safe location since mid-March. We are strongly concerned that the abduction of Stephen is a retaliation for speaking out against human rights abuses and threats to the livelihood of his community due to the Kingfisher oil project.

The abduction of Stephen fits into a broader pattern of indiscriminate violence against local communities, activists, students, journalists, and environmental groups speaking out against human rights abuses and threats to the environment due to oil projects in Uganda. On May 27^th, seven Stop EACOP activists were arrested outside the Chinese embassy in Kampala for holding a peaceful demonstration calling on China to stop plans to support EACOP. They were released on police bond and are still battling police cases. Again, on May 30 2024, a group of project affected community members protested and later presented a petition to Daqing Oilfield Construction Group, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned oil and gas giant China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), concerning the impacts of the project on their livelihoods. On June 3rd, one of them was arrested and detained in Kikuube police station while others managed to escape and remain on the run.

The signatories of this statement stand in solidarity with Stephen, EGI and Ugandan civil society organizations and urge the Ugandan authorities to:

• Immediately and unconditionally release Stephen Kwikiriza, as the undersigned believe that he was abducted and is being held solely as a result of his legitimate and peaceful work in defense of human rights and the environment.
• Ensure Stephen’s human rights are respected and, pending his release, ensure that the treatment of Stephen Kwikiriza adheres to the conditions set out in the ‘Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment’, adopted by the UN General Assembly resolution 43/173 of 9 December 1988.
• Cease all forms of harassment of civil society organisations and community members living in and speaking out on the EACOP Kingfisher project and all other related oil projects, including the Tilenga project, and guarantee in all circumstances that they are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisal.
  
  

Signed,