GENEVA (Reuters) – The U.N. human rights chief called on the British government on Thursday to reverse legislation passed a day earlier to clamp down on protests by giving police in England and Wales more powers to act to prevent serious disruption.
The Conservative government says the new powers are needed to prevent a small minority – who have been protesting mainly over environmental issues – disrupting the lives of the wider public.
The Public Order Bill, which completed its passage through the UK parliament on Wednesday, has drawn heavy criticism from civil rights groups who say it gives police too much power.
The bill restricts the freedoms of some protesters to stop them causing serious disruption to infrastructure, including airports and railways, and creates a new criminal offence for those who seek to lock themselves to objects or buildings.
Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the legislation was “deeply troubling” and that it imposed restrictions on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly that are “neither necessary nor proportionate”.
“This law is wholly unnecessary as UK police already have the powers to act against violent and disruptive demonstrations,” Turk said in a statement. “I call on the UK government to reverse this legislation as soon as feasible.”
Turk further said the law was incompatible with the UK’s international human rights obligations.
In recent years, protests have shut down large parts of central London and blocked traffic on highways, leading to calls for the police to have more power to stop such disturbances.
“I am also concerned that the law appears to target in particular peaceful actions used by those protesting about human rights and environmental issues,” Turk added.
“As the world faces the triple planetary crises of climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution, governments should be protecting and facilitating peaceful protests on such existential topics, not hindering and blocking them.”
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, Kylie MacLellan and Andrew MacAskill, editing by Mark Heinrich)
