Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

Sunak will today propose broadening the definition of “serious disruption” even further, in a draconian new public order bill to help police stop what he calls a “disruptive minority” from using tactics such as blocking roads & slow marching.

ft.com/content/57730f…

Sunak's proposals to help the police stop disruptive public protest, means heading even further down a route that has drawn heavy criticism from civil rights groups. The UK Govt now more closely resembles an illiberal authoritarian state than a functioning modern democracy.

Sunak - mistakenly imho - believes the public & business will support the government’s efforts to stop protesters causing serious disruption following a series of high-profile protests by groups such as #JustStopOil and #InsulateBritain.

Last week, Tirana Hassan, acting executive director of international NGO Human Rights Watch, said the UK government had a “very short window” to reverse some of its decisions, before it joins “the countries listed as human rights abusers rather than human rights protectors”.

Police have already been given additional powers to prevent protesters using what Downing Street calls “guerrilla tactics”, but police chiefs say there is uncertainty over what reaches the threshold of “serious disruption”.

The changes would mean that police will not need to wait for disruption to take place and can shut protests down before they happen.

Police would not need to treat a series of protests by the same group as standalone incidents, but would be able to consider their total impact.

Sunak said: “The right to protest is a fundamental principle of our democracy, but this is not absolute.”

Last time I looked, 'fundamental' means "being or forming a foundation: basic, essential".

The right to protest is an essential attribute of any functioning democracy.

Sir Mark Rowley, Metropolitan Police commissioner, said: “Increasingly police are getting drawn into complex legal arguments about the balance between that right to protest and the rights of others to go about their daily lives free from serious disruption.

Rowley complained about “The lack of clarity in the legislation & the increasing complexity of the case law.” Hassan said: “A slew of legislation was passed last year where fundamental human rights are being challenged. The protest law is something we are deeply concerned about.”

“When you talk about civic space and about people’s right to participate in a democratic society, the right to peaceful assembly and the right to protest are key pillars of that. We’ve seen an outright assault from this government on that.”

Human Rights Watch also criticised other illiberal UK Govt measures, including a new elections act which will require voter identification in polls & the barbaric #Rwanda Plan, calling them an “outright assault” on the rights of its own citizens

theguardian.com/global-develop…

The United Kingdom government repeatedly sought to damage and undermine human rights protections in 2022, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2023.

hrw.org/news/2023/01/1…

“In 2022, we saw the most significant assault on human rights protections in the UK in decades. From your right to protest to your ability to hold institutions to account, fundamental & hard-won rights are being systematically dismantled.”
- Yasmine Ahmed, UK director at HRW.

In 2022, the broken UK government introduced laws that stripped rights of asylum seekers & other vulnerable people, encouraged voter disenfranchisement, limited judicial oversight of government actions, & placed new restrictions on the right to peaceful protest.

The Govt also proposed the repeal & replacement of the Human Rights Act, which gives life to the European Convention on Human Rights in the UK, with a so-called Bill of Rights. HRW said the bill, if adopted, would fundamentally undermine human rights protections in the UK.

As these rights were being stripped away, the UK was hit hard by a #CostOfLivingCrisis, with inflation reaching 11.1 percent by the end of October and official data showing that low-income households disproportionately felt the impact of rising energy and food prices.

The government’s refusal to reverse a social security cut made in 2021, and a November 2022 announcement that social security support would not increase to meet inflation until April 2023 breach the rights to social security and to an adequate standard of living.

Frontline welfare, anti-poverty, & food aid organizations have all criticized the UK Govt.

The Govt also failed to speak up or act against some international abuses, including those committed by Israel or that had been committed, including by the UK, during the colonial period.

The Nationality & Borders Act removed fundamental commitments to protect people fleeing persecution, criminalised those who attempt to enter the UK irregularly, empowers officials to engage in dangerous pushbacks at sea, & allows the UK Govt to expel asylum seekers from the UK.

The Govt also brokered a deal with #Rwanda to expel asylum seekers arriving by boat or other irregular routes to Rwanda, despite the country’s appalling human rights record and opposition to the deal by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees & other UN experts.

In June, when the UK’s then prime minister, Boris Johnson, visited Rwanda for a Commonwealth summit, he failed to raise any human rights concerns, despite a litany of damning evidence provided by the US State Department.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1514962777089138688?s=20&t=1Dt0mYCxcy2O7p1HJKojXQ

The UK Govt funds countries engaged in egregious human rights violations, eg Bahrain; obstructed a proposal at the WTO to waive intellectual property rules for Covid-19 vaccines & therapeutics; undermined a Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory & Israel.

The UK Government also voted AGAINST a UN Human Rights Council resolution on racism, racial discrimination, & xenophobia.

These policies all undermine the UK’s ability to effectively advocate for a rules-based international order, Human Rights Watch said.

“Despite heralding itself as playing a ‘leading role in defending democracy and freedom across the world,’ the UK Government has taken a sledgehammer to fundamental international commitments,” Ahmed said.

“In one breath the British government is denouncing Russia for violating international law and in the next it’s actively flouting and undermining its own international commitments.”

#EnoughIsEnough

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1509459552101703688?s=20&t=1Dt0mYCxcy2O7p1HJKojXQ