A United Nations envoy said he was \u201calarmed,\u201d \u201cdistressed\u201d and \u201cseriously concerned\u201d by the treatment of climate activists in the United Kingdom, in a damning report published Tuesday that criticized \u201cincreasingly severe crackdowns\u201d on peaceful protesters in the country. <\/p>\n
Michel Forst, the UN\u2019s Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, who visited the UK earlier this month to meet with politicians, NGOs, activists and lawyers, said he had received \u201cextremely worrying\u201d information about peaceful protesters facing prosecution under \u201cregressive\u201d new laws, experiencing \u201charsh\u201d bail conditions while awaiting trial, and being handed jail sentences. <\/p>\n
British authorities have stepped up their response to climate and environmental protestors in recent years, especially when protests become disruptive, including blocking roads and slow walking tactics. <\/p>\n
Last year, the the country introduced new legislation \u2014 the Public Order Act 2023 \u2014 giving police more power to stop protests. In December, the legislation was used to sentence a climate protester to a six-month prison term for taking part in a slow march on a public road as part of the activist group Just Stop Oil. The protester is now appealing the sentence. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt had been almost unheard of since the 1930s for members of the public to be imprisoned for peaceful protest in the UK,\u201d Forst wrote. <\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the UK Home Office, the government department that tackles policing and other elements of national security, said that \u201cwhile decisions on custodial sentences are a matter for the independent judiciary, the Public Order Act brings in new criminal offences and proper penalties for selfish, guerrilla protest tactics.\u201d <\/p>\n
Forst said he was \u201calarmed\u201d to learn that some judges were banning defendants from explaining the motivation behind their protest, including mentioning climate change. \u201cIt is very difficult to understand what could justify denying the jury the opportunity to hear the reason for the defendant\u2019s action,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n
The report referred to \u201chighly concerning\u201d information about \u201charsh\u201d bail conditions for peaceful protesters awaiting trial \u2014 a period that could span up to two years \u2014\u00a0including wearing electronic ankle tags and curfews. \u201cI seriously question the necessity and proportionality of such conditions for persons engaging in peaceful protest,\u201d Forst wrote. <\/p>\n
He also said he was \u201cdistressed\u201d to see how environmental defenders are \u201cderided\u201d by the media and political figures in the UK. It puts them at risk of \u201cthreats, abuse and even physical attacks,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
This \u201ctoxic discourse\u201d can also be used by the government as justification for \u201cadopting increasingly severe and draconian measures against environmental defenders,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn the course of my visit, I witnessed firsthand that this is precisely what is taking place in the UK right now,\u201d he said, adding this had a \u201csignificant chilling effect\u201d on civil society and fundamental rights to peaceful protest. <\/p>\n
Climate protesters are increasingly undertaking high-profile and disruptive actions. But the fact they cause disruption does not mean they are not peaceful, Forst said. <\/p>\n
In January last year, one of the best known climate groups in the UK, Extinction Rebellion, announced it was pausing mass public disruption campaigns to focus on building more support. <\/p>\n
But other organizations have scaled up their protests. Last year, Just Stop Oil, for example, disrupted several major sporting events in England, including Wimbledon, the Ashes cricket test series and the World Snooker Championship, as well as a performance of the musical \u201cLes Mis\u00e9rables.\u201d <\/p>\n
This story has been updated with additional information.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n A United Nations envoy said he was \u201calarmed,\u201d \u201cdistressed\u201d and \u201cseriously concerned\u201d by the treatment of climate activists in the United Kingdom, in a damning report published Tuesday that criticized \u201cincreasingly severe crackdowns\u201d on peaceful protesters in the country. Michel Forst, the UN\u2019s Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, who visited the UK earlier this month <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}