The Court of Cassation acknowledged the jurisdiction of the judicial court to judge the complaint of the associations on behalf of the non-compliance with the law on the duty of vigilance.
Le Monde with AFP
After two years of judicial battle, the NGOs who complain against Total for non-compliance with his duty of vigilance as part of his megaproject in Uganda have just won a first battle: the case will be judged before the court court. From Nanterre and not before the Commercial Court, as claimed by the oil group. Thus decided the Court of Cassation, Wednesday, December 15, questioning the judgment of the Court of Appeal of Versailles, a year ago.
The Court of Cassation recalled that “the vigilance plan” that has a company since the law voted in 2017 does not “constitute a commerce” and that the applicants could choose before which court they wished to bear this type. business.
“The non-trader applicant who exercises an action against a trader has an option of competence under which he may choose to bring this action before the court or before the Court of Commerce”, detailed the Court of Cassation in its stop.
In the eyes of the friends of the earth, survival and four Ugandan NGOs associated in their complaint against Total, the case can not be “reduced to a purely commercial litigation”: “These are external issues, protection of human rights and the planet “. The Court of Cassation therefore declared the Judicial Court of Nanterre competent.
More than 100,000 people deprived of their land
Total “Take Act” of the judgment: “This decision definitively distances the debate on vigilance skill.”
It’s an “important victory”, welcomed themselves in a statement the NGOs. These associations accuse total of not taking into account the social and environmental impacts of the oil exploitation project located on the shores of Lake Albert, in western Uganda, and the 1,445 km pipeline which will allow ‘Export fossil fuel while crossing part of the country then Tanzania to win the port of Tanga, on the Indian Ocean. Some 100,000 people must be moved and one-third of 400 drilling should be carried out in the Murchinson Falls National Park, which houses a significant number of endangered species.
The action brought against Total since October 2019 is the first based on French law relating to the “duty of vigilance” of multinationals. This law of 2017 requires all multinational to “prevent serious abuses against human rights” and “the environment” at their foreign subcontractors and suppliers, through a “vigilant plan”.
The judgment of the Court of Cassation constitutes “a first victory in the long judicial battle that we have committed against the multinational. We will finally be able to focus on the substance of the case,” reacted Thomas Bart, of Survival, cited in a statement. NGOs, however, lament that these “two long years” devoted to deciding on the jurisdiction of the judicial court, generated harmful deadlines to the population victims of the project: “Meanwhile, according to our investigations, more than 100,000 people are always privately deprived of Or partially their lands and livelihoods in Uganda and Tanzania, “Juliette Renaud, Friends of the Earth France.