... [W]e are grateful for the opportunity to respond to these allegations and to set out the extensive measures which TotalEnergies’ subsidiaries in Uganda and Tanzania have taken to protect the rights of Human Rights Defenders (HRD) and to exercise leverage on relevant authorities in accordance with the... UNGPs.

... [T]he assertion whereby “… None of The Companies involved in these projects have publicly available, company-wide policy commitments to not contribute to or tolerate attacks on HRDs”is not accurate as far as TotalEnergies is concerned... TotalEnergies has had human rights governance documents and policies in place for several years, and these are all publicly available.

... With regard to the Human Rights Defenders, Totalenergies reaffirms in its HRBP 2024 that “It is our view that an open civic space and the role of civil society organizations and other Human Rights defenders are necessary to ensure respect for Human Rights and to voice the concerns of right holders. As part of our activities, we promote dialogue and discussions with Human Rights defenders, as defined in the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders”.

... EACOP and Tilenga Human Rights Policies describe their respective commitment to the protection of the rights of HRDs... Any allegations of harassment and threats against HRDs and NGOs in relation to the Projects are considered in the subsidiaries’ Human Rights Committees. The Projects regularly encourage their stakeholders including NGOs to inform them immediately if they have knowledge of concrete incidents or events providing sufficient detail for investigations to be carried out.

... TEPU has no oversight nor supervisory role or sanction powers including in relation to the section of local police known as the “Oil & Gas Police”. We can only influence, building trust with the authorities, as it is our experience that without trust leverage is impossible.