Why the right to peaceful protest is essential in the fight against destructive climate change
Five climate activists from the campaigning organisation Just Stop Oil were last month given unprecedented, lengthy prison sentences for the act of planning a peaceful protest.
The campaigners were given between four and five years for engaging in a Zoom call in which disruption of roadways was discussed.
These sentences are the result of the controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act and other new laws brought forward in 2022 and 2023, designed to stop activists using civil disobedience and non-violent direct action against government or corporate inaction. July’s sentences, which are the longest for non-violent protest in UK history, are the direct result of these draconian policies.
Like many other civil society organisations based in the UK, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is deeply concerned about the situation.
EIA Climate Campaign leader Clare Perry said: “While multinational corporations and climate criminals are literally making the planet uninhabitable for future generations in their pursuit of profits, the courts have decided to punish members of the public for trying to draw attention to the climate crisis and the dire situation we’re facing.”
The sentences have drawn broad criticism, including from the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, Michel Forst, who at the time stated: “Today marks a dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”
In the courtroom, the activists sought to use evidence of climate breakdown to explain why their actions were proportionate to the scale of the threat humanity faces.
Flooding in York, UK, 2022
But the judge ruled that the jury should not take this evidence into account, limiting what the activists could say in their defence.
The actions of the court are particularly misplaced, given that studies show changes to the climate are likely to lead to an increase in security threats and disorder and a rise in serious organised crime, including migrant-smuggling and human trafficking.
A 2023 analysis of 28 large US cities demonstrated that increases in temperature were significantly associated with increases in aggravated assaults, robberies and homicides.
Perry added: “The new Labour Government must immediately reinstate the right to protest in the UK. The UK cannot claim to be a world leader on climate action while continuing the previous administration’s policy of imprisoning peaceful climate activists.”
Last week, EIA and more than 90 other civil society organisations sent a joint a letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, calling on her to intervene to reverse the crackdown on peaceful protest set in motion under the last Government.
