Human Rights Council critical of OM after climate arrests: ‘Demonstration law under pressure’ | Interior

The right to demonstrate is under ‘severe pressure’ due to the detention of climate activists who called for the blockade of the A12, the Board of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday.

“The government must facilitate demonstrations,” emphasizes the Human Rights College. “The use of criminal law instruments to prevent the organization of a demonstration is an extremely serious means that is not easy to justify.”

According to the Board, it also seems that two standards are used. Climate activists and Black Lives Matter activists are being “treated disproportionately” compared to other protesters, such as those from Farmers Defense Force.

Nitrogen policy

The fact that several climate activists were arrested prior to the blockade on the A12 also indicates this. The government must guarantee the right to demonstrate. “Whether it’s farmers demonstrating against nitrogen policy that should protect the climate or climate activists arguing for faster government action to combat climate change.”

Arresting and prosecuting activists for sedition, even before a demonstration has taken place, is ‘an extremely serious means’, according to the college. “It can have a paralyzing effect: it can prevent others from exercising their right to freedom of expression and peaceful protest. And that means that the use of this remedy cannot easily be justified”, it sounds.

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