In Britain, Palestine and climate activists face an 'unprecedented' wave of criminalisation
Anti-terrorism and anti-mafia laws are increasingly being used by British authorities to detain and prosecute activists and journalists, according to those affected by the legislation and the legal experts defending them.
Campaigners say there is an ongoing and unprecedented crackdown on the right to protest in the UK, with those most impacted including Palestine activists and climate change protesters.
The campaign group Defend Our Juries said that since July this year, more than 40 climate and pro-Palestine activists have been imprisoned - either after conviction or jailed on remand, awaiting trial.
In December last year, the Metropolitan Police said they had made 630 arrests of Just Stop Oil activists in that month alone, a figure that civil rights group Liberty condemned as “staggering and shocking”.
The trend accelerated after Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, but activists and legal experts say it is part of a broader crackdown on civil disobedience dating back to 2022.
Michael Forst, the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, said the situation is the worst it has been in the UK since the 1930s.
Authorities in the UK now have access to a repertoire of legislative and legal levers that have widened police powers and eroded the right to protest.
The measures are in part driven by the global efforts of think tanks representing the interests of fossil fuel companies and the arms industry, which have helped characterise social movements as extremist and are involved in the drafting of anti-protest legislation.
Read more: In Britain, Palestine and climate activists face an 'unprecedented' wave of criminalisation
