![A police officer speaks with a person from 'Just Stop Oil' protesting in London, UK, October 2, 2022 [File: Henry Nicholls/Reuters]](/Uploads/Images/News/2024/1/Image-2223-20240124052417.jpeg)
UN expert warns of ‘severe’ crackdown on climate protestors in UK
A UN expert has warned that environmental activists face a “severe crackdown” in the United Kingdom and that peaceful protestors are the targets of “toxic discourse”.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders Michel Forst said he had received “extremely worrying information” about “an increasingly severe crackdown” during a recent visit to the UK.
“Regressive laws” were being used to give environmental and climate activists severe penalties, “including in relation to the exercise of the right to peaceful protest,” he warned in a statement on Tuesday.
“The right to protest is a basic human right. It is also an essential part of a healthy democracy,” he added.
Forst is an independent expert appointed under the UN’s Aarhus Convention, which provides for justice in environmental matters.
The UK is a signatory of the convention.
![Activists of ‘Just Stop Oil’ glue their hands to the wall after throwing soup at Van Gogh’s painting, Sunflowers, at the National Gallery in London, UK, October 14, 2022 [File: Just Stop Oil/Handout via Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2022-10-14T122225Z_438668644_RC201X94PDFM_RTRMADP_3_BRITAIN-PROTEST-VANGOGH-1706038314.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C561&quality=80)
Last year, British police were granted anti-protest powers by the government following years of disruptive demonstrations by environmental activists.
But Forst said now peaceful protestors were being persecuted for the criminal offence of “public nuisance”, which is punishable by up to 10 years jail time.
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