Photo credit: Middle East Eye
The UK has been asked to review its protest laws by Europe’s most senior human rights lawyer, Michael O’Flaherty.
The Guardian reports that O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, said that the current legal framework allows authorities in the UK to “impose excessive limits on freedom of assembly and expression, and risk over policing” in a letter sent to the home secretary.
He also called on the government to reconsider provisions in the crime and policing bill that would make it a criminal offence for a person to conceal their identity as a protest.. The bill is currently before the House of Lords.
The Palestine Action ban came into effect on 5 July. Hundreds of people have been arrested since then, mainly for holding signs reading: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”
O’Flaherty, in a letter to the home secretary last month, wrote that, “I observe that large numbers of arrests have reportedly been made for displaying placards or banners expressing solidarity with the organization or disagreement with the government’s decision to proscribe it.
“I am aware that ‘support’ for a proscribed group is an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000. In this regard, I recall that domestic legislation designed to counter ‘terrorism’ or ‘violent extremism’ must not impose any limitations on fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, that are not strictly necessary for the protection of national security and the rights and freedoms of others.”
His comments came as an international human rights group crticized Western governments for “criminalizing the right to protest”.
Under new powers, police would be able to impose tougher conditions on static protests or marches by taking into account the “cumulative power” of previous similar demonstrations, Shabana Mahmood had said of her most recent plans.
