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Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights et al. v. Tanzania and Uganda - judgment

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Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights et al. v. Tanzania and Uganda - application

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Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights et al. v. Tanzania and Uganda - press release

Filing Year For Action

On November 6, 2020, four civil society organizations (Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights (CEFROHT), the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), Natural Justice, and the Centre for Strategic Litigation) filed a suit against the governments of Tanzania and Uganda in the East African Court of Justice seeking an injunction to stop the East African Crude Oil Pipeline. Plaintiffs allege that the governments, without objection from the Secretary General of the East African Community, who is responsible for oversight of the East African Community Treaty, signed agreements to build the pipeline without proper environmental, social, human rights, and climate impact assessments. The claims arise under Ugandan national law and the East African Community Treaty and its protocols. The civil society organizations are the Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights, the Africa Institute for Energy Governance, Natural Justice, and the Center for Strategic Litigation in Tanzania.

On November 23, 2023, the East African Court of Justice dismissed the case on procedural grounds. The Court ruled that the NGOs failed to file the case within the required 60-day objection window following the signing of the pipeline agreements in 2017.  The NGOs, however, argue that they only became aware of the full scope of the project in 2020 after a public briefing by the Ugandan government, and thus their filing was timely and justified. 

Following the dismissal, the NGOs filed an appeal, contending that their claims — including allegations of human rights violations, environmental harm, and lack of public participation — deserve judicial consideration. While the first hearing of the appeal, scheduled for November 2024, was postponed due to technical issues, all submissions have now been filed. A judgment is expected within two months. If the appellate court rules in favor of the NGOs, the case will return to the lower division of the EACJ for a full hearing on its substance. The appeal also challenges the costs imposed on the NGOs by the lower court, a move that drew criticism for being unprecedented in public interest litigation before the EACJ. 

On February 24, 2025, the Appellate Division of the EACJ heard the appeals filed by the CSOs. The applicants argued that the case was filed in time and compliant with the relevant laws, the First Instance Division court misapplied procedural law, and the previous decision unjustly imposed costs on the public interest litigants. 

As a result, the applicants are asking for the First Instance Division decision to be set aside and for a full rehearing of the case. 

The EACJ Appeals decision is pending.

Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights et al. v. Tanzania and Uganda

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

This sector involves the wholesale and retail selling of goods.

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

A financial institution that manages a country's currency and can promote climate-related initiatives through green monetary policy and other means.

Climate change impacts our society by disrupting the natural, economic and social systems we depend on. Physical hazards and underlying vulnerabilities can lead to increased resource competition for food and water, which can heighten the risk of conflict.

The activities of industries that transforms raw materials into finished goods through industrial processes.

Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights et al. v. Tanzania and Uganda - judgment

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Finance