He said the prosecution of peaceful protesters under “regressive” new public nuisance laws in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, which carried a 10-year sentence, and the use of the Public Order Act 2023 was criminalising peaceful demonstrations.
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, prior to 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, in a statement issued on Tuesday morning. “I am therefore seriously concerned by these regressive new laws.”
There are other countries following the same path, enforcing draconian punishment towards environmental activists (labelled by the press as “ecological terrorists”).
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A severe crackdown on environmental protest in Britain with “draconian” new laws, excessive restrictions on courtroom evidence and the use of civil injunctions is having a chilling impact on fundamental freedoms, the United Nations special rapporteur has said.
Forst said that during a two-day visit to the UK earlier this month he uncovered worrying information on the treatment of peaceful protesters.
“It is important to highlight that, prior to 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, in a statement issued on Tuesday morning.
These include being forced to wear tags while awaiting trial, restrictions on movement, and bans on speaking to other environmental activists.
“Some environmental defenders have also been required to wear electronic ankle tags, some including a 10pm-7am curfew, and others, GPS tracking,” said Forst.
He called for a constructive dialogue with the Conservative government to ensure that members of the public seeking to protect the environment were not subject to persecution, penalisation or harassment for doing so.
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