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HRW: UK failure to revoke anti-protest laws 'seriously undermines' democratic rights

Rights group says the new government is following the same 'worrying trajectory' as the last by upholding draconian anti-protest laws and appealing against a court ruling to curb them
Police officers arrest a supporter of the Extinction Rebellion environmental movement after the facade of an office building in central London was spray painted on 29 October 2024 (AFP)

The UK government is “seriously undermining” democratic rights, by failing to revoke draconian anti-protest laws introduced by the previous administration, Human Rights Watch said today.

In its latest World Report reviewing human rights practice in more than 100 countries, HRW said that the Labour government is failing to repeal anti-protest measures and continuing to appeal against a court ruling that found them unlawful.

Last May, civil rights group Liberty won a legal challenge against the Home Office over public order laws that handed the police sweeping powers to crack down on protests.

The measures lowered the threshold for police to restrict peaceful protest by redefining what is considered “serious disruption” to community life from “significant” and “prolonged” to “more than minor”.

Two judges found that then Home Secretary Suella Braverman passed the measures despite not having the backing of parliament to do so.

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Under the new home secretary Yvette Cooper, the Home Office announced in December that it was appealing against the court’s decision.

Furthermore, the new government has failed to repeal the Public Order Act 2023 and the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 - laws that vastly expanded police powers and have seen hundreds of peaceful protesters, predominantly pro-Palestine and climate activists, arrested.

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“This current UK government has failed to live up to the commitments they made both prior to and now after the election, which are to ensure that they uphold human rights, in particular with respect to the cornerstone of democracy, the right to protest and the right to freedom of expression,” HRW UK director Yasmine Ahmed told Middle East Eye.

“The fact that they failed to repeal legislation that severely restricts the right to protest and also that they have continued with the last government’s case… sends a very worrying message about its commitments to the fundamental values of freedom of expression and the right to protest,” she added.    

A worrying trajectory

Campaigners have reported an unprecedented crackdown on the right to protest in the UK, with those most impacted including Palestine activists and climate change protesters. 

The campaign group Defend Our Juries said that since July, more than 40 climate and pro-Palestine activists have been imprisoned - all of them either sentenced to prison after conviction or jailed on remand awaiting trial. 

In December 2023, the Metropolitan police said they had made 630 arrests of Just Stop Oil activists in that month alone, a figure that civil rights group Liberty condemned as “staggering and shocking”.

A report by the police watchdog Netpol found that, since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023, pro-Palestine protesters have faced increasingly severe police restrictions and calls for the banning of demonstrations.

Campaigners also reported that they had been referred to the government’s Prevent programme, and that police have followed individuals after protests or turned up at their homes unannounced.

Last week, the Metropolitan Police used the public order act to bar a pro-Palestine march from gathering outside the BBC’s London headquarters on Saturday, after pro-Israel groups, MPs and peers had reportedly urged Met Commissioner Mark Rowley to order the rally to be rerouted, citing concerns it would cause “serious disruption” to a nearby synagogue.

“We’re on a very, very worrying trajectory and continuing on that trajectory,” Ahmed told MEE.

“This government has spoken about governments in other countries that repress their citizens…and yet they themselves have continued with the draconian past the last government imposed.”
 

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