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From EcoWatch
- The UK’s crackdown on climate protesters is setting a “dangerous” global precedent, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) UK Director Yasmine Ahmed. The UK government’s anti-protest legislation is undermining democratic rights, particularly the right to protest peacefully.
- The Public Order Act 2023 and the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 give the police greater authority while undermining democratic rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of speech. These laws have made participating in climate activism increasingly risky, leading to fewer people willing to take part.
- In 2024, 34 climate protesters were jailed in the UK, including five Just Stop Oil activists who received the longest jail sentences ever for non-violent protest actions – four and five years – for “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance”.
The United Kingdom’s crackdown on climate protesters is setting a “dangerous” global precedent, according to the UK Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) Yasmine Ahmed, reported The Guardian.
British authorities are undermining democratic rights, particularly the right to protest peacefully, according to HRW’s World Report 2025.
“Many of us had hoped that an incoming Labour government would have repealed the undemocratic anti-protest legislation introduced under the previous administration, especially given Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s background as a human rights lawyer,” Ahmed said in a press release from HRW. “That they have chosen not to, and are instead defending these measures in court, beggars belief. Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of a healthy and functioning democracy.”
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