Concerning limits to human rights defence announced by UK government
The ability to defend human rights is a fundamental pillar of democracy, security and sustainable development. PBI UK calls on the government to focus less on imposing restrictions at home, and more on supporting activists abroad.
On May 10, Prince Charles announced a UK government legislative agenda containing concerning components which could be used to limit the ability of citizens to defend their rights. Immediately, organisations like Amnesty and Liberty spoke out against the measures. PBI shares their consternation.
Two measures of the ‘Queen’s Speech’, in particular, are worth highlighting.
The government took a step closer to scrapping the Human Rights Act which, for almost a quarter of a century, has enshrined our fundamental rights in law, allowing citizens to challenge abuses of power. Replacing it with a narrower Bill of Rights would shift power away from ordinary citizens and towards those who might want to silence or abuse certain groups or individuals.
Boris Johnson’s administration also committed to push ahead with its controversial ‘Policing Bill’, including elements that restrict the rights of protesters, and which have previously been struck down in the House of Lords. Under the proposed law, stop and search powers would be extended, allowing the police to stop anyone in the vicinity of a protest, regardless of whether they are demonstrating peacefully, or even just passing by. The bill provides for harsher protest-related sentences, and introduces ‘serious disruption prevention orders’, banning individuals with previous protest-related offences.
“Not only is the ability to protest a fundamental right in and of itself, but it is precisely because people took to the streets in the past that we now have women’s right to vote, the decriminalisation of same-sex relationships, and other such freedoms in the UK today”, said PBI Director Ben Leather, adding that “Mature democracies tend to strengthen mechanisms for human rights defence, not take them away”.
For more than forty years, PBI’s international observers around the world have stood alongside those facing great risks for defending their human rights. We have seen first-hand how dangerous any rollback of rights can be, as evidenced recently in Guatemala and Nicaragua where a weakening of the institutional frameworks to uphold rights have contributed to an increase in attacks against those who defend them.
The UK has often been an ally to these brave human rights defenders, whose actions not only contribute to advancing rights, peace, and prosperity in their own countries, but can have an impact on freedoms globally. Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of land and environmental defenders, who are fighting to stem the climate crisis for all of us.
PBI’s offices engage with UK embassies, many of which take effective actions to support activists. Recently in Colombia, diplomats visited community conservation projects in the Amazon which are threatened by armed groups & oil companies. In 2019, the UK laid out a set of guidelines on the government will support human rights defenders. However, PBI has since joined tens of other civil society organisations in calling upon the government to develop and implement a comprehensive cross-departmental strategy, to move towards consistent support and protection rather than ad hoc measures.
“Rather than seeking to restrict human rights activism at home, the UK government should be focused on how it can support human rights defenders around the world”, said Leather. “This government talks a lot about freedom, democracy and free speech. Human rights defenders are key allies in these endeavours, which is why a strategy to protect and partner with them should be at the core of its foreign policy”.
PBI will continue to support and protect human rights defenders globally, and to monitor moves to restrict civil liberties in the UK.
Sam Greenhalgh / flickr.com
