Are human rights in Oil and Gas areas observed and monitored?

On 27^th August members of CSO’s in the Rwenzori region convened to discuss the way forward towards Human rights protections in the Oil belts of Uganda. This was at Hotel Cornerstone in the heart of Fort portal Town. Participants included religious leaders, opinion leaders, leaders of CSO’s, Uganda Human Right Commission staff. Uganda is having about 2.5 billion Barrows of oil and about 100000 barrows are produced. The present Oil in Uganda will last for 20-30yrs. About 1000 people are currently employed in the oil sector. The government together with the oil company plan to build a refinery in Hoima. The Oil companies in Uganda are Tullow, CNOC and TOTAL.90% of the effects of oil happen in the transportation process [spilling of oil]. 15% of the total revenue was supposed to be for local government and the kingdoms but the new law allows 3% to these categories.

Is Uganda moving in the right direction or in a dangerous sector if our leaders are not acting well to help the country benefit from what we have as oil? What are then these human rights? They are inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is entitled. They apply to everyone, everywhere; they exist as natural rights and legal rights. Human rights are universal; Article 1 and article 20 of the constitution. The principle is these rights are universal, promote equality, apply to everyone and not separable etc.  The responsibility to uphold the rights is in right holder and duty holder. The overall responsibility of meeting human rights rests in the state through its organs. The state must ensure transparency in its conduct in observing these rights in the constitution.

However the oil sector has made a population of Uganda think this would be “a curse”. This was based on what people observed that; the signature bonus given to Uganda was never invested as was required, there has been military interventions especially on those who raise their voice in areas Ugandan’s right have been violated like in Hoima,Bulisa and the surrounding villages. Land grabbing is the order of the day. The major problem now is pollution in the oil area. What have been observed are environmental degradation, oil spilling, and air pollution? In Nigeria there are 1 billion barrows of oil and 30-40 thousand people are employed in the oil sector but “violence has attracted violence” and these are not supposed to happen in Uganda. Can we think of a Uganda where “peace will attract Peace” or we may need a Divine intervention for peace to prevail. How is the construction of the refinery going to answer the fundamental question of protecting human rights in Uganda? Does the said law answer article 23, 24,25,26,27,28,41,42 of the constitution as fear has already to be observed? The answer was “NO”.

Participants agreed that human rights are not observed and it now the role of all the right holders and those in authority. Monitoring of these rights would involve; a) Tracking what is happening [measuring progress in relation to implementation plan, situation monitoring, measuring change in a condition or set of condition i.e. change in situation of children and women],b). Purpose [provide accountability for implementation, improve program implementation, trigger rapid adaptation, feed into evaluation and provide information for advocacy]. Monitoring would also involve collection, verification and use of information to address human rights. Monitoring aim at establishing the compliance of 2 objectives like Respect and protect.