Establish special courts for environmental crimes in Honor of the late Right Honorable Jacob Oulanyah to curb the rising environmental crimes in Uganda.
By: Aryampa Brighton
Worth Noting:
- Uganda’s deforestation rate is 2.4% annually among others. By 1994, Uganda had 15.6 percent of the land surface covered in permanent and seasonal wetlands but less than 8.4 percent are remaining following massive encroaching in the last 25 years.
- Worse still, These environmental problems directly cause deleterious effects on the wellbeing of many Ugandans by reducing agricultural production causing food shortages, leading to poor health arising from drinking polluted water, contributing to floods and its associated impacts, reducing forest cover, wetlands, worsening climate change and so many other adverse effects.
- The uncontrolled deforestation, unstopped plastic pollution, and changes to key ecosystems such as Lake Victoria present significant challenges to the people who depend on these resources.
On 22nd January, 2018 While officiating at the Regional Forum for the police and prosecutors on environmental crimes at Imperial Resort Beach, Entebbe. The Forum was held under the theme “Greening Police and prosecutor Education programmes in Africa”. The Late Hon Jacob Oulanyah rooted for establishment of special courts to handle environmental crime and further called for specific training for prosecutors and police in handling environment related crimes. He advised the DPP and other stakeholders in the environmental sector to design a special training programme and recommended the establishment of a special division to handle environmental crime. He noted that such special training and court will enable the environmental police and prosecutors to handle environmental crimes expeditiously and completely because they will be familiar with the terminology.
In reiteration, the DPP then Justice Mike Chibita noted that there is need to enhance the capacity of prosecutors and police officers to investigate and prosecute environment crimes noting that the existing environmental law and policy taught at Makerere and Uganda Christian University is theoretical and has a narrow scope. He further noted that the skills gap environmental criminal law and investigation can be traced to the omission this important subject in a significant way from the curriculum of Makerere University, law development Centre and police training schools.
In Uganda today, we continue to face climate change and environmental degradation daily, Environment crimes are on the rise in Uganda yet the response is relatively very low. It is estimated that approximately 29% of the 82,954 species which are listed on the IUCN Red List are threatened with extinction. According to RUSI research paper, Uganda occupies a critical position as a logistics hub for transnational flows of illegally sourced wildlife. Approximately 41% of Uganda’s total area is experiencing degradation. Uganda’s deforestation rate is 2.4% annually among others. By 1994, Uganda had 15.6 percent of the land surface covered in permanent and seasonal wetlands but less than 8.4 percent are remaining following massive encroaching in the last 25 years. Worse still, These environmental problems directly cause deleterious effects on the wellbeing of many Ugandans by reducing agricultural production causing food shortages, leading to poor health arising from drinking polluted water, contributing to floods and its associated impacts, reducing forest cover, wetlands, worsening climate change and so many other adverse effects. The uncontrolled deforestation, unstopped plastic pollution, and changes to key ecosystems such as Lake Victoria present significant challenges to the people who depend on these resources. They continue to have a cumulative effect, which means that the youngest generations and local communities will bear much of the burden of these challenges, despite not having contributed to them nor having had the opportunity to advocate for policies that would mitigate them.
To help address the ongoing environmental issues, we need to establish special courts to handle environment crimes and design a special training programme for police and prosecutors to competently and expeditiously handle them. I urge the government of Uganda to do this in memory of the late speaker and his environmental spirit to protect nature and create a home for the present and future generations. The reality is so glaring that you have to be stubborn to ignore it. I have seen rivers dry. The drought is becoming more severe and frequent. This is an issue of human survival,”- Rt. Hon. Jacob Oulanyah Lokori.
We have perfect environmental legislation raging from the constitution, statutes and international conventions but Inadequate knowledge and poor skills in the administration of environmental criminal justice has made the enforcement of and compliance with environmental laws in Africa a challenge. This has rendered sustainable management of the environment quite difficult, affecting the attainment of the SDGs (particularly 16) and Agenda 2063 of the African Union. As a country, we must mainstream course elements on environmental crimes in the training curricula of police and prosecutors in order to enhance their capacity to investigate and prosecute cases. We must create a pool of national trainers on environmental crimes, improve intra and international coordination among agencies, and strengthen the environmental law program of Uganda. We must put in place environment and climate institutes to provide special training to the Environmental police and prosecutors as well as promote environmental literacy in the country.
Historically, Uganda set up special courts to handle corruption related cases, children courts to handle children related cases, military courts and are considering establishing a court to handle cases of gender-based violence then why not establish courts to handle environment crime to save the country and the world from the worst adversities of climate change and environmental degradation. Thank you for your humanity and loving nature, may your soul continue resting in paradise Jacob.
ARYAMPA BRIGHTON
aryampa.brighton@gmail.com /baryampa@ygcug.org
The writer is a lawyer and Chief Executive Officer, Youth for Green Communities (YGC).
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