UK to toughen anti-protest measures, despite criticism from rights groups

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Rishi Sunak will propose new measures on Monday to help police end disruptive public protests in Britain, moving further down a path that has drawn heavy criticism from civil rights groups.

The Prime Minister wants to broaden the legal definition of serious disturbance in a new Public Order Bill, to help police arrest what he calls a disruptive minority who use tactics such as blocking roads or marching slow.

Sunak believes the public and businesses will support the government’s efforts to stop protesters causing serious disruption following a series of high-profile protests by groups including Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain.

But Human Rights Watch, the international NGO, last week criticized the government for a series of recent measures, including restrictions on protests.

Tirana Hassan, acting executive director of HRW, said the government had a very short window to reverse some of its decisions, before joining countries listed as human rights violators rather than human rights protectors.

The Government will this week table an amendment to the Bill, currently in the House of Lords, which it says will give police greater flexibility and clarity about when to step in to arrest a disruptive minority.

Police have already been given additional powers to stop protesters using what Downing Street calls guerrilla tactics, but police chiefs say there is uncertainty over what meets the threshold of serious disruption.

The changes would mean police will not need to wait for disruption to occur and can stop protests before chaos occurs, Downing Street said.

Police would not need to treat a series of protests by the same group as isolated incidents, but would be able to consider their total impact; they could also take into account the cumulative effect of long-lasting campaigns over several weeks intended to cause repeated disturbances.

Sunak said: The right to protest is a fundamental principle of our democracy, but it is not absolute. A balance must be found between the rights of individuals and the rights of the majority of workers to go about their daily business.

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Sir Mark Rowley, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said: “Increasingly, the police are embroiled in complex legal arguments over the balance between this right to protest and the rights of others to go about their daily lives without serious disruption.

The lack of clarity in the legislation and the growing complexity of case law make this more difficult and more contested.

But Hassan said last week: A series of laws have been passed in the last year where basic human rights are challenged. The Demonstrations Act is something we are deeply concerned about.

When you talk about civic space and the right of peoples to participate in a democratic society, the right to peaceful assembly and the right to demonstrate are the main pillars of that. We have seen an outright assault by this government on this.

HRW has also criticized government measures, including a new electoral law that will require voter identification in polls and plans to allow offshore processing of asylum claims in Rwanda.

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