Authored By: FRANKLIN HIGENYI
CAVENDISH UNIVERSITY UGANDA
Introduction
The intensification of oil and gas extraction across Africa has fundamentally reconfigured the relationship between development, environmental governance, and human rights. In Uganda, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) stands at the centre of this transformation. Framed as a flagship development initiative, the project is projected to stimulate economic growth through increased state revenue, infrastructure expansion, and employment generation. Yet, beneath this developmental narrative lies a complex web of environmental risks, legal contestations, and socio-economic disruptions that expose the limits of existing regulatory frameworks.[1]
These disruptions are not evenly distributed. Women, particularly in rural and agrarian communities, experience the consequences of extractive development in profoundly gendered ways. Their reliance on land, water, and ecological systems for subsistence renders them uniquely vulnerable to environmental degradation, land dispossession, and displacement.[2] At the same time, their participation in decision-making processes remains structurally constrained, limiting their capacity to influence outcomes that directly affect their livelihoods.[3] This reflects broader patterns across extractive economies in Africa, where gendered inequalities intersect with environmental harm to produce disproportionate burdens on women.[4]
Uganda’s legal framework, complemented by regional and international human rights instruments, ostensibly provides robust mechanisms for environmental protection. At the domestic level, the Constitution guarantees the right to a clean and healthy environment,[5] while the National Environment Act 2019 establishes regulatory tools such as Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and environmental restoration orders.[6] These are reinforced by international obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),[7] the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights,[8] and the Maputo Protocol,[9] all of which recognise the interdependence between environmental protection, gender equality, and sustainable development.
However, the implementation of these mechanisms within the EACOP context reveals significant deficiencies. Evidence from litigation and policy analysis indicates that enforcement remains inconsistent, participation is often procedural rather than substantive, and gendered impacts are largely unaddressed within legal doctrine.[10] For instance, challenges brought in Uganda Law Society & 9 Others v Attorney General[11] highlight procedural and substantive concerns regarding environmental governance in large-scale extractive projects, yet judicial intervention has remained cautious, reflecting institutional limitations in enforcing environmental accountability.[12]
Moreover, emerging human rights critiques of EACOP underscore patterns of land dispossession, inadequate compensation, and restricted civic participation, all of which disproportionately affect women.[13] These challenges point to a deeper structural problem; the persistence of gender-neutral legal frameworks operating within gendered socio-economic realities. As critical legal scholars have argued, formal equality within environmental law often obscures substantive inequalities, thereby reproducing injustice rather than remedying it.[14]
This article argues that environmental and energy law in Uganda, while normatively progressive, fails to achieve substantive environmental justice in the context of EACOP due to its gender-neutral orientation, weak enforcement structures, and limited responsiveness to socio-cultural realities. Using Uganda as a case study, the article interrogates the legal framework governing environmental restoration, analyses key jurisprudence, and advances a case for gender-responsive environmental governance that centres women’s lived experiences within extractive development processes.
Legal Framework Governing Environmental Protection and Gender
International and Regional Framework
The normative foundation of environmental and gender justice is firmly established within international and regional law. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) imposes obligations on states to eliminate discrimination and ensure women’s equal access to economic resources, including land and environmental assets.[15] The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights recognises the right to a satisfactory environment conducive to development, thereby embedding environmental protection within the human rights framework.[16]
The Maputo Protocol further strengthens this position by explicitly linking women’s rights to sustainable development and natural resource governance.[17] Together, these instruments establish that environmental harm is not merely ecological but also a matter of gender justice, requiring states to adopt inclusive and equitable approaches to resource management.
Domestic Legal Framework in Uganda
Uganda’s constitutional and statutory framework reflects a strong formal commitment to environmental protection. The Constitution guarantees the right to a clean and healthy environment, positioning environmental protection as a justiciable right.[18] The National Environment Act, 2019, operationalises this right by establishing regulatory mechanisms, including EIAs, public participation requirements, and environmental restoration orders.[19]
Environmental restoration orders are particularly significant as they embody the “polluter pays” principle, empowering the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) to compel restoration of degraded ecosystems or provide compensation for environmental harm. Additionally, the Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Act, 2013 introduces sector-specific safeguards for oil and gas operations.[20]
Despite this robust framework, the translation of legal provisions into effective environmental governance remains uneven, particularly in the context of large-scale extractive projects such as EACOP.
Environmental Restoration and Legal Accountability in the EACOP Context
Environmental restoration orders are designed as corrective mechanisms to address environmental harm after it occurs. Under the National Environment Act,[21] such orders may require rehabilitation of land, restoration of water sources, and compensation to affected communities.
In the case of Uganda Law Society & Others v Attorney General,[22] the legality of approvals granted for EACOP was challenged on grounds including inadequate environmental safeguards and procedural irregularities in the EIA process. While the courts acknowledged certain deficiencies, they refrained from imposing robust remedial measures, including the enforcement of restoration obligations.
This judicial restraint illustrates a broader structural tension within environmental law: while legal tools for accountability exist, their application is often constrained by economic and political considerations. In effect, restoration orders remain under utilised, limiting their capacity to deliver meaningful environmental justice.
Land, Displacement, and Gendered Inequality
The implementation of EACOP has necessitated extensive land acquisition, leading to displacement and compensation disputes. In Uganda’s pluralistic land tenure system, women frequently access land through customary arrangements rather than formal ownership. This creates a structural disadvantage in compensation processes, which tend to prioritise registered title holders.
In Namulondo & Another v Attorney General,[23] the High Court recognised that compensation must extend beyond formal ownership to include all individuals affected by land acquisition. However, the practical implementation of this principle remains inconsistent, with women often excluded from compensation negotiations and benefit-sharing mechanisms.
Regional jurisprudence, such as African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights v Kenya,[24] reinforces the obligation to protect vulnerable groups in the context of land and resource governance. Although arising from a different jurisdiction, such decisions provide persuasive authority for interpreting state obligations in Uganda.
The failure to adequately account for women’s land rights not only exacerbates economic vulnerability but also undermines broader principles of environmental justice.
Participation, Procedural Justice, and Exclusion
Public participation is a cornerstone of environmental governance, intended to ensure transparency, accountability, and inclusivity. The National Environment Act mandates stakeholder engagement in EIA processes. However, participation within the EACOP framework has often been criticised as formalistic rather than meaningful.
Women, in particular, face barriers to effective participation, including limited access to information, socio-cultural constraints, and exclusion from decision-making spaces. This undermines the principle of free, prior, and informed consent and raises fundamental concerns about procedural justice.
The East African Court of Justice, in African Network for Animal Welfare v Attorney General of Tanzania,[25] emphasised the importance of meaningful public participation in environmental decision-making. Such jurisprudence highlights the need for participatory processes that are not only inclusive in form but also substantive in impact.
Critical Analysis of Gendered Environmental Injustice: Law, Enforcement, and Extractive Power in Uganda
- Gender Neutrality and Substantive Inequality
A defining limitation of Uganda’s environmental legal framework is its gender-neutral orientation. While laws recognise environmental harm, they fail to capture the differentiated ways in which such harm is experienced. Women’s dependence on natural resources for subsistence, water provision, and agricultural production means that environmental degradation disproportionately affects their livelihoods. Environmental restoration orders, in their current form, prioritise ecological rehabilitation without addressing socio-economic loss. This results in partial remedies that fall short of substantive justice.
- Enforcement Deficits and Institutional Constraints
The effectiveness of environmental law is contingent upon enforcement. Regulatory institutions such as NEMA often operate under significant constraints, including limited resources, technical capacity, and political independence. These limitations are further compounded by the economic significance of projects such as EACOP, which may discourage stringent regulatory action.
Judicial reluctance to intervene decisively in extractive sector disputes further weakens accountability mechanisms, reducing the transformative potential of environmental litigation.
- Extractivism, Patriarchy, and Structural Inequality
The intersection of extractive development and patriarchal social structures reinforces gender inequality. Women’s marginalisation in land ownership, economic participation, and governance processes is amplified in the context of oil and gas projects.
A decolonial perspective reveals that these inequalities are historically embedded within legal and institutional systems. Addressing them requires not only legal reform but also a reconfiguration of power relations within environmental governance.
Towards Gender-Responsive Environmental Governance
Achieving environmental justice in the context of EACOP requires a shift from formal legal compliance to substantive, gender-responsive governance. This entails among others; integrating gender impact assessments into EIA processes, Strengthening enforcement of environmental restoration orders, Recognising women’s land and resource rights within both statutory and customary frameworks, enhancing access to justice through legal aid and community empowerment and ensuring meaningful participation of women in environmental decision-making
Such reforms would align Uganda’s environmental governance with broader principles of equality, sustainability, and social justice.
Conclusion
The EACOP project encapsulates the tensions inherent in contemporary development paradigms, where economic aspirations intersect with environmental and social realities. While Uganda’s legal framework provides a foundation for environmental protection, its application in the context of EACOP reveals significant gaps in enforcement, participation, and gender responsiveness.
Women, positioned at the intersection of environmental dependency and socio-economic marginalisation, bear a disproportionate share of these shortcomings. Addressing this imbalance requires a transformative approach to environmental law one that recognises the gendered dimensions of environmental harm and prioritises inclusive, equitable governance.
Ultimately, environmental justice in Uganda’s oil and gas sector will depend not on the existence of legal frameworks alone, but on their capacity to respond to lived realities and redistribute power in meaningful ways.
Reference(S):
A. Books and Articles
- Upendra Baxi, The Future of Human Rights (Oxford University Press 2006).
- Damilola Olawuyi, ‘Energy Justice and Sustainable Development in Africa’ (2023) Journal of World Energy Law & Business.
Cases
- African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights v Kenya (2017) African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
- African Network for Animal Welfare v Attorney General of Tanzania.
- Namulondo & Another v Attorney General (High Court of Uganda).
- Uganda Law Society & Others v Attorney General Constitutional Petition No 8 of 2015 (Uganda).
International and Regional Instruments
- African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (adopted 27 June 1981, entered into force 21 October 1986) art 24.
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (adopted 18 December 1979, entered into force 3 September 1981).
- Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (adopted 7 July 2003, entered into force 25 November 2005).
National Legislation (Uganda)
- Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995, art 39.
- National Environment Act 2019 (Uganda).
- Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Act 2013 (Uganda).
Reports and Institutional Sources
- African Development Bank, Gender and Extractive Industries in Africa (2022).
- Human Rights Watch, ‘Our Trust is Broken’: Loss of Land and Livelihoods for Oil Development in Uganda (2023).
- International Federation for Human Rights, EACOP Project: A Disaster for Human Rights and the Environment(2022).
- Oxfam, Gender, Extractives and Livelihoods in East Africa (2022).
[1] International Federation for Human Rights, EACOP Project: A Disaster for Human Rights and the Environment (2022).
[2] Oxfam, Gender, Extractives and Livelihoods in East Africa (2022).
[3] African Development Bank, Gender and Extractive Industries in Africa (2022).
[4] Damilola Olawuyi, ‘Energy Justice and Sustainable Development in Africa’ (2023) Journal of World Energy Law & Business.
[5] Article 39, Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995 as amended.
[6] National Environment Act, 2019 (Uganda).
[7] Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (adopted 18 December 1979, entered into force 3 September 1981).
[8] African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (adopted 27 June 1981, entered into force 21 October 1986) art 24.
[9] Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (adopted 7 July 2003, entered into force 25 November 2005).
[10] Human Rights Watch, ‘Our Trust is Broken’: Loss of Land and Livelihoods for Oil Development in Uganda (2023).
[11] Uganda Law Society & 9 Ors v Attorney General Constitutional Petition No 8 of 2015 (Supreme Court of Uganda).
[12] Ibid
[13] Human Rights Watch, ‘Our Trust is Broken’: Loss of Land and Livelihoods for Oil Development in Uganda (2023).
[14] Upendra Baxi, The Future of Human Rights (Oxford University Press 2006).
[15] Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women 1979 (adopted 18 December 1979, entered into force 3 September 1981).
[16] Article, 24. African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights 1981 (adopted 27 June 1981, entered into force 21 October 1986).
[17] Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (adopted 11 July 2003, entered into force 25 November 2005).
[18] Article 39, Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 as amended.
[19] National Environment Act 2019 (Uganda).
[20] Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Act 2013 (Uganda).
[21] Act 2019 (Uganda
[22] Uganda Law Society & Others v Attorney General Constitutional Petition No 8 of 2015 (Uganda).
[23] Namulondo & Another v Attorney General (High Court of Uganda).
[24] African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights v Kenya (Ogiek case) (2017) African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
[25] (Reference No 9 of 2010) East African Court of Justice.
