An extreme crackdown on environmental protests in the UK is stifling fundamental freedoms, a UN special rapporteur has said. Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, stated last month that environmental protesters are acting for the “benefit of us all” and must be protected.

Forst stated that during a two-day visit to the UK earlier in January, he discovered troubling information about the treatment of peaceful protesters, including the use of “draconian” new regulations, disproportionate limitations on judicial evidence, and the use of civil injunctions.

Defendants in one London court were unable to explain their intentions to the jury due to court rules. Demonstrators at Inner London Crown Court have been ordered not to mention the climate catastrophe in their statements to the jury. They are also forbidden from referencing fuel poverty or the US civil rights movement.

“It is very difficult to understand what could justify denying the jury the opportunity to hear the reason for the defendant’s action and how a jury could reach a properly informed decision without hearing it, in particular at the time of environmental defenders’ peaceful but ever more urgent calls for the government to take pressing action for the climate,” Forst said.

He said the prosecution of peaceful protesters under the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act 2022 is criminalising peaceful demonstrations. The use of the Public Order Act 2023 also contributes to this issue, carrying a potential 10-year sentence.

Forst highlighted the case of a peaceful protester jailed in December for six months for walking slowly down a road for 30 minutes during a climate protest under the new public order law.

“It is important to highlight that, before these legislative developments, it had been almost unheard of since the 1930s for members of the public to be imprisoned for peaceful protest in the UK,” said Forst. “I am therefore seriously concerned by these regressive new laws.”

Forst also highlighted the draconian bail terms imposed on climate campaigners for peaceful demonstrations. These include the requirement to wear tags while awaiting trial, movement restrictions, and limitations on speaking with other activists.

“Some environmental defenders have also been required to wear electronic ankle tags, some including a 10 p.m.–7 a.m. curfew, and others, GPS tracking,” said Forst.

“Under the current time frames of the criminal justice system, environmental defenders may be on bail for up to two years from the date of arrest to their eventual criminal trial.

“Such severe bail conditions have significant impacts on the environmental defenders’ personal lives and mental health, and I seriously question the necessity and proportionality of such conditions for persons engaging in peaceful protest.”

He decried the use of civil injunctions to prevent peaceful protests. He also noted the “toxic” media and political discourse surrounding climate demonstrators.

“The toxic discourse may also be used by the state as justification for adopting increasingly severe and draconian measures against environmental defenders,” he said.

“I witnessed firsthand that this is precisely what is taking place in the UK right now. This has a significant chilling effect on civil society and the exercise of fundamental freedoms.”

Forst stated that he was speaking out because he was deeply concerned about the pervasive limitations on peaceful protest. He continues to conduct investigations, and he reviews formal complaints concerning treatment that are presented to him.

He advocated for constructive dialogue with the government to ensure environmentalists are not persecuted, punished, or harassed.

The UN special rapporteur is appointed by the conventions, including the Aarhus Convention, to which the UK is a signatory. Tim Crosland of Plan B claimed that, as the convention was legally obligatory on the UK, the special rapporteur’s report implied that the government was behaving unlawfully.

“If the events related to the UN rapporteur were taking place in Russia or China, we’d be appalled,” he said.

“The British Government aims to crush political opposition to its environmental destruction through a violent programme of repression—imprisoning peaceful demonstrators and undermining the right to a fair trial. In doing so, they vandalise not only our environment and Britain’s international reputation but also our democracy.”

“The UN special rapporteur offers a damning indictment of the repressive crackdown climate activists in the UK face for exercising their right to peacefully protest,” he said.
Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, Sacha Deshmukh. “The UK Government seems more intent on creating a climate of fear than tackling the climate crisis.”

A Home Office spokesman told The Muslim News that while the right to demonstrate is an essential component of democracy, “we must also protect the law-abiding majority’s right to go about their daily lives.”

Adding to that, “the Public Order Act brings in new criminal offences and proper penalties for selfish guerrilla protest tactics.”

Photo: Protestor arrested during the Just Stop Oil demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London, on November 5, 2022. (Credit: Alisdare Hickson/Flickr)

Elham Asaad Buaras