#RightToProtest is under attack in #England and #Wales, reports warn
#HumanRightsWatch and Justice say recent legislative changes have had a chilling effect and should be repealed

by Haroon Siddique
Thu 8 Jan 2026

"The right to protest is under attack in England and Wales with laws trampling over human rights protections and more oppressive restrictions in the pipeline, two major reports have warned.

"Both Human Rights Watch and the cross-party law reform organisation Justice say recent legislative changes have created a chilling effect on lawful protest and should be repealed. Their reports, simultaneously published on Thursday, also say that proposals for more curbs should be halted.

"They highlight the arrest of Republic #AntiMonarchy protesters during King Charles’s coronation, charges and arrests of #ProPalestinian demonstrators and long sentences for #ClimateProtesters as examples of the crackdown on the right to peaceful dissent.

"Fiona Rutherford, chief executive of Justice, said: 'Year by year, we see police powers grow, as our fundamental right to protest is treated more like a privilege. The law in this area has become dangerously unbalanced, empowering the state to silence voices it should be safeguarding. Reversing this trend is essential to restoring trust, protecting rights and preserving a healthy democracy.'

"Lydia Gall, a senior Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: 'The UK is now adopting protest-control tactics imposed in countries where democratic safeguards are collapsing. The UK should oppose such measures, not replicate and endorse them.'

"Both reports say that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the #PublicOrderAct 2023 were watershed moments, criminalising large amounts of previously lawful protest activity and placing a greater emphasis on preemptive containment of protest through criminal law.

The 2022 law granted police authority to impose conditions on public assemblies on grounds such as causing 'serious unease' or being 'too noisy', described by Human Rights Watch as 'vague and subjective'.

"Members of the public can be arrested for carrying items – described as innocuous by Justice – including cable ties, bike locks or glue, on suspicion that they may be used for 'locking‑on'."

Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/08/right-to-protest-is-under-attack-in-england-and-wales-reports-warn

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/KORuE

#CriminalizingProtest #SilencingDissent #EnvironmentalActivists #GazaGenocide #HumanRights #AntiProtestLaws
#RightToProtest #ACAB #UKPol #JustStopOil #PalestineAction

The structure of this #BBC article on #JSO and #ClimateProtesters is entirely to serve the interests of those who want to portray climate activism as a ‘public nuisance’.

It’s one thing to briefly quote #Liberty, but they don’t acknowledge the UN’s view that UK sentencing of climate protestors was “beyond comprehension” and expressed alarm at “increasingly severe” crackdowns on the right to protest in the UK.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz6denxzweeo

And how much economic damage is from climate change and pollution from #FossilFuels? #BigOil is the real criminal here!

#ClimateProtesters are taking action against Big Oil. UK courts are handing them prison terms akin to rapists and thieves

By Kara Fox, CNN
September 14, 2024

London CNN — "As #RightWing rioters attacked communities with #racist violence across parts of the UK last month, 22-year-old #ClimateActivist #CressieGethin sat in a prison cell.

"Her crime? Organizing a disruptive protest against new government-granted licenses to drill for oil — a planet-heating #FossilFuel — in the #NorthSea.

"In late July, a London court found #Gethin and four other members of the #JustStopOil activist group guilty of 'conspiring intentionally to cause a #PublicNuisance,' after recruiting protesters to climb structures along the M25 — a major ring road around London — bringing traffic to a standstill in parts over four days in November 2022.

"Prosecutors alleged that the protests, organized over a #ZoomCall, disrupted more than 700,000 drivers, caused economic damage of over £760,000 ($980,000) and racked up £1 million ($1.3m) in policing costs.

"Now Gethin and three others — Louise Lancaster, #DanielShaw and #LuciaWhittakerDeAbreu, who planned the disruption on the call — are serving four-year jail terms, while Just Stop Oil co-founder #RogerHallam was given five years. All are appealing.

"The sentences are believed to be the longest in the UK’s history for #nonviolent protest and were delivered under two new controversial laws that supercharged #policing powers to crack down on disruptive protests, even when they are peaceful.

"They place the act of planning a 'public nuisance' event, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, on a similar footing as #ViolentCrimes like robbery, for which punishments range from community service to 12 years’ jail, or rape, which is four to 19 years.

"The judge — who in court referred to the activists as '#extremists' — justified the long jail terms because all five activists had previously been convicted of one or more offenses in relation to direct action protest. Each were on bail for another set of proceedings when the Zoom call took place. He also noted people missed important doctor’s visits and funerals because of the protest.

"But activists like Gethin say their demonstrations are proportionate to the problem at hand — a rapidly warming world that threatens to transform life as we know it, through deadly #ExtremeWeather events and by pushing #ecosystems to their brinks. They are now battling the bolstered powers of the #police and courts to get their point across.

“'A very harsh sentence like this doesn’t make sense morally or legally — but it does make sense politically,' Gethin told CNN in a handwritten letter from HMP Bronzefield, a women’s prison just south of London’s Heathrow Airport.

"The laws have drawn criticism from the UN’s special rapporteur on #EnvironmentalDefenders, #MichaelForst, who said not only do they criminalize peaceful protest, but they are being enforced in 'punitive and repressive' ways."

Read more:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/14/climate/uk-climate-protests-policing-laws-prison-intl/index.html

#BigOilAndGas #ClimateActivists #ClimateProtest #SLAPPs #CorporateColonialism #WaterDefenders
#ClimateDefenders
#EnvironmentalActivists
#SilencingDissent #SLAPPs #ClimateActivists #CorporateColonialism
#EarthDefenders #CriminalizingDissent #FreeSpeech #RightToProtest #BiodiversityNecessityDefense
#EarthDefenders
#SLAPPs #Fascism #CivilDisobedience
#Activism #ClimateStrike
#HumanRights #Article20 #2023PublicOrderAct #ClimateNecessityDefense #Corporatocracy #CorporateFascism #ClimateCrisis #ClimateCatastrophe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVhZE4b-DVo

#StatusCoupNews 17 minutes ago

ARMY of Cops 🐷 🐷 🐷 DRAG #ClimateProtesters Blocking #Citibank

#climate #climatecrisis

In #NYC and elsewhere, #ClimateProtesters say pace of change isn’t fast enough

By SETH BORENSTEIN
September 20, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — "Six years after a teenage #GretaThunberg walked out of school in a solitary #Climate{rotest outside of the Swedish parliament, people around a warming globe marched in youth-led protest, saying their voices are being heard but not sufficiently acted upon.

"Emissions of heat-trapping gases and temperatures have been rising and #OilAndGas drilling has continued even as the protests that kicked off major weeklong climate events in New York City have become annual events. This year, they come days before the #UnitedNations convenes two special summits, one concentrating on #SeaLevelRise and the other on the future.

"The young people who organized these marches with #FridaysForFuture said there is frustration with inaction but also hope. People marched in #Berlin, #RioDeJaneiro, #NewDelhi and elsewhere, but the focus often is in New York City because of #ClimateWeekNYC. Diplomats, business leaders and activists are concentrating their discussions on the money end of fighting #ClimateChange — something not lost on protesters.

"'We hope that the government and the financial sector make polluters pay for the damage that they have imposed on our environment,' said #Uganda Fridays for Future founder #HildaFlaviaNakabuye, who was among a few hundred marching in New York Friday, a far cry from the tens of thousands that protested in a multi-group mega-rally in 2023.

"The New York protest wants to take aim at 'the pillars of #FossilFuels” — companies that #pollute, banks that fund them, and leaders who are failing on climate, said Helen Mancini, an organizer and a senior at the city’s Stuyvesant High School."

Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/climate-protests-change-united-nations-climate-week-3c944a1d05d5bb4415c6b811bddc48b9

#ClimateWeek #ClimateProtests #ClimateCrisis #ClimateCatastrophe #FridaysForFuture #BigOilAndGas #Greenwashing

Hundreds of #ClimateProtesters have clashed with police in #Germany after attempting to storm the #Tesla factory near #Berlin.

Several people were injured, including three police officers, during Friday's demonstration against the proposed expansion of the #ElectricCar giant's only European plant. #Gigafactory

#Grünheide: Tesla factory protesters clash with police in Germany
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cv2j0v237vko

Ministers consider ban on MPs engaging with pro-#Palestine and #ClimateProtesters

Plans call for ‘zero-tolerance approach’ to groups such as #PalestineSolidarityCampaign and #JustStopOil
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/03/ministers-consider-ban-mps-engaging-pro-palestine-climate-protesters
#ClimateCrisis #authoritarianism

https://juststopoil.org/
https://palestinecampaign.org/

'Removing #UK #ClimateProtesters’ defence ‘could [will] erode right to #TrialByJury’

#AttorneyGeneral’s attempt to end climate protesters’ use of #ConsentDefence is slippery slope, says KC'
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/21/removing-uk-climate-protesters-defence-could-erode-right-to-trial-by-jury
#Law #Justice #ToryPoliciesInAction #authoritarianism

''Activist decries #Tory challenge to #LegalDefence for #protesters

Exclusive: Acquitted activist says #AttorneyGeneral trying to remove ‘last remaining #defence’ for #ClimateProtesters'
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/19/rights-of-juries-activist-decries-tory-challenge-legal-defence-for-protesters-climate
#ToryPoliciesInAction #authoritarianism #RuleOfLaw