Uganda : Arbitrary detention of 12 StopEACOP youth activists

UGA 006 / 1025 / OBS 065
Judicial harassment /
Arbitrary detention
Uganda
29 October 2025

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Uganda.

Description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed of the judicial harassment and arbitrary detention of 12 young environmental and climate justice defenders, namely Mses Dorothy Asio, Teopisita Nakyabande and Shammy Nalwadda, and Messrs Ivan Wamboga, Baker Tamale, Noah Katiti, Akram Katende, Ismail Zziwa, Shafik Kalyango, Ali Keisha, Habibu Nalungu and Mark Nakoba. They are students from various universities of Kampala or Wakiso Districts, and youth members of the Students Against EACOP Uganda campaign. The campaign stands against the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), a major project by TotalEnergies involving a pipeline to carry oil across Uganda and Tanzania, which poses significant risks to the ecosystem and local communities’ rights.

On 16 October 2025, the bail application of the 12 above-mentioned climate rights defenders was once again not heard by the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court, marking the fourth unsuccessful attempt to secure their provisional release. The defenders have now spent nearly three months in arbitrary pre-trial detention. The Court justified its decision by stating that the proceedings were already at an “advanced stage”, and therefore bail was unnecessary. On 6 November 2025, the Court is expected to decide whether sufficient evidence exists for the defenders to be formally sent to trial.

The 12 climate defenders students were arrested on 1 August, 2025 during a peaceful protest in front of Stanbic Bank Head Office on Hannington Road, Central Division, Kampala, where they were holding placards and banners with the words “Stop EACOP Uganda”, denouncing the bank’s funding of the ongoing construction of the EACOP despite raised environmental and human rights concerns about the project. All of them were charged with “nuisance on roads” under Section 65(e) of the Road Act Cap. 346, under the pretext that they placed themselves on a road “in such a manner to cause danger or inconvenience to traffic”, and remanded to Luzira Maximum Security Prison in Kampala where they are still detained.

On 18 August, 2025, Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court Winnie Nankya denied them bail arguing that some of the activists were recurring protestors.

On 5 September, 2025, the same court declined to consider the 12 defenders’ renewed bail application and adjourned the proceedings to 1 October, 2025. On that date, the hearing was once again postponed, this time to 16 October, 2025.

The Observatory notes that in recent years, a surge in arbitrary arrests, judicial harassment, and torture targeting environmental rights defenders and groups advocating for environmental and land rights have been documented. For instance, on 9 August 2024, 47 students were arrested by police officers in Kampala, as they were engaged in a peaceful protest against the EACOP project. Between May and June 2024, environmental activists like Adriko Sostein, Julius Tumwiine, and Stephen Kwikiriza were arrested and arbitrarily detained, as well as Bob Barigye, Noah Katiiti, Newton Mwesigwa, Julius Byaruhanga, Desire Ndyamwesigwa, Raymond Binntukwanga, and Jealousy Mugisha Mulimbwa. Lawyer Eron Kiiza, known for his advocacy for environmental protection and rule of law, has also been targeted and detained. In April 2025, 11 environmental defenders, known as #KCB11 were arbitrarily arrested and detained following a peaceful protest denouncing the Kenyan Commercial Bank’s decision to fund EACOp. In October 2024, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders sent a letter to the Ugandan government, raising concern about the increasing harassment of activists opposing the EACOP, particularly Students for Global Democracy.

These arbitrary arrests and detentions, and acts of judicial harassment, are part of a persistent and intensive repressive trend -especially ahead of the upcoming general elections scheduled for early 2026- targeting environmental and human rights defenders and affected communities in the context of oil development projects in Uganda. This highlights a broader pattern of silencing and undermining the fundamental freedoms of peaceful assembly and expression guaranteed under both Ugandan (Article 29 of the Constitution of Uganda) and international law (Articles 19 and 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – ICCPR).

The Observatory strongly condemns the judicial harassment and arbitrary detention of the above-mentioned 12 young climate rights defenders, which appears to be an act of reprisal for their legitimate human rights work.

The Observatory urges the Ugandan authorities to ensure their immediate and unconditional release, and put an end to any act of harassment, including at the judicial level, against them and all the human rights defenders in Uganda.

Action required:

1. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical integrity and psychological well-being of Dorothy Asio, Teopisita Nakyabande, Shammy Nalwadda, Ivan Wamboga, Baker Tamale, Noah Katiti, Akram Katende, Ismail Zziwa, Shafik Kalyango, Ali Keisha, Habibu Nalungu and Mark Nakoba, as well as all human rights defenders in Uganda ;
2. Ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Dorothy Asio, Teopisita Nakyabande, Shammy Nalwadda, Ivan Wamboga, Baker Tamale, Noah Katiti, Akram Katende, Ismail Zziwa, Shafik Kalyango, Ali Keisha, Habibu Nalungu and Mark Nakoba, as well as all the human rights defenders arbitrarily detained in Uganda ;
3. Put an end to any act of harassment, including at the judicial level, against Dorothy Asio, Teopisita Nakyabande, Shammy Nalwadda, Ivan Wamboga, Baker Tamale, Noah Katiti, Akram Katende, Ismail Zziwa, Shafik Kalyango, Ali Keisha, Habibu Nalungu, Mark Nakoba and all the climate rights defenders, and more globally all the human rights defenders in Uganda ; and
4. Guarantee, in all circumstances, that human rights defenders in Uganda are able to carry out their legitimate activities without fear of reprisals, and free of all undue restrictions, including enforced disappearance, torture or other arbitrary sanctions.

Addresses

• Mr Kaguta Yoweri Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda, E-mail: museveni@starcom.co.ug / aak@statehouse.go.ug, X: @KagutaMuseveni
• Ms Robinah Nabbanja, Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda, Email: ps@opm.go.ug, X: @RobinahNabbanja
• Mr Jeje Odongo Abubakher, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uganda, X: @UgandaMFA
• Hon. Norbert Mao, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of Uganda, Email: info@jlos.go.ug / info@justice.go.ug
• Hon. Kiryowa Kiwanuka, Attorney General of Uganda, Email: info@jlos.go.ug / info@justice.go.ug
• Ms Jane Frances Abodo, Director of Public Prosecutions, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of Uganda, Email: admin@dpp.go.ug
• Ms Mariam Fauzat Wangadya, Chairperson, Uganda Human Rights Commission, Email: uhrc@uhrc.ug
• H.E. Mr. Marcel Robert Tibaleka, Permanent Mission of Uganda to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Email: chancery@ugandamission.ch
• H.E. Mirjam Blaak Sow, Embassy of Uganda to the EU in Brussels, Belgium. Email: ugembrus@brutele.be, info@ugandamission-benelux.org

Please also write to the diplomatic representations of Uganda in your respective countries.

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Paris-Geneva, 29 October 2025

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken, quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this programme is to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights defenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civil society.

To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:

• E-mail: alert@observatoryfordefenders.org

• Tel FIDH: + 33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18

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