The approval of new laws to limit the right to protest in it United Kingdom has put the main human rights defense organizations on alert. The last of them has been Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has accused the Labor Government of disobeying its international obligations in this matter and of expanding the “repressive measures” against the protesters promoted by the previous conservative Government. Some measures that must be revoked, according to the organization, given the risk that undermine freedoms and democratic rights in the country.
In a report Published this Thursday, HRW criticizes the processing of the Crime and Policing Bill, a text promoted by Labor that grants new powers for security forces to prohibit, among other things, protesters from covering their faces and protests near places of worship, in addition to facilitate deportation of people who find themselves in an unstable immigration situation, such as asylum seekers, in the event that they participate in a concentration.
“The United Kingdom is adopting control tactics of the protests imposed in countries where democratic guarantees are collapsing,” he said. Lydia Gallsenior researcher for Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch. “The United Kingdom should oppose such measures, not replicate them and support them,” added the activist, who has urged members of Parliament to review the new law to “eliminate measures that further restrict the right to protest.”
Controversial laws
The organization has regretted that the Labor Government is committed to following the line set by the conservatives, who approved new laws in 2022 and 2023 to facilitate arrest of protesters under ambiguous criteria, as well as to carry out preventive arrests and to request prison sentences for participating in non-violent concentrations, actions that until then were usually punishable with fines or community service. The objective of these laws was toughen penalties against activists from organizations such as Just Stop Oil o Extinction Rebellion and end their disruptive actions, including slow marches and attacks against cultural property and patrimonial.
One of the most controversial consequences of its approval was the sentencing of five members of Just Stop Oil to between two and five years in prison in July 2024 for plan a protest through a video call. The sentence was later reviewed by the Superior Court of Justice (High Court) considering it “manifestly excessive”but it was only reduced from five to four years in prison in one of the cases. The environmental organization announced the end of its activities last March after denouncing the “oppressive anti-protest laws” of the United Kingdom.
Outlawed organization
Human rights organizations have also denounced the use of anti-terrorist laws to pursue the protesters. An example is the banning last July of the Palestine Action group, after several of its members broke into arms factories and army bases to protest against the sale of military equipment to Israel by British companies, with the support of the Government. The participants in these actions are in preventive detentionsome of them on hunger strike for months, while the authorities hundreds of people have been arrested for publicly showing his support for the organization since its ban.
The HRW report, titled ‘Silencing the streets: the right to protest under attack in the United Kingdom’, recalls that the country is obliged to protect freedom of expression and assembly in accordance with national and international laws, including articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Among their claims is the abolition of laws approved by the previous conservative government and the reinforcement of domestic human rights law to prevent further political interference and to ensure that law enforcement complies with international law.
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