Demonstrating respect for rights? A human rights approach to policing protest
Source: Human Rights Joint Committee
Summary:

The Government should protect and facilitate the opportunity for people to protest peacefully. To fail to do so would jeopardise a number of human rights including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and the right to freedom of expression.

We have found no systematic human rights abuses in the policing of protest but we have some concerns which can be addressed by legal and operational changes. Making these changes would further protect the rights of people who wish to protest in the UK.

The Government should amend Section 5 of the Public Order Act. Reference to insulting words or behaviour should be removed. This change would allow the police to arrest people for using threatening or abusive language or behaviour but not for using insulting language or behaviour.

Counter-terrorism powers should never be used against peaceful protestors: the Government’s guidance on stop and search powers in Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 should make this clear.

The Government should protect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly around Parliament by repealing the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. Protest around Parliament should be governed by the Public Order Act 1986. However, the 1986 Act should be amended to deal with the specific circumstances of Parliament, so as to allow Parliamentarians and others to access and work in Parliament whilst protest is ongoing.

The police and protestors need to focus on improving dialogue. The police should aim for “no surprises” policing: no surprises for the police; no surprises for protestors; and no surprises for protest targets.

Regular, relevant and up to date human rights training should be integrated into other police training. Police forces should ensure that there is sufficient human rights knowledge and understanding available to police officers to help avoid human rights breaches. They should review how they foster effective dialogue with protestors. Protestors should also, where possible, engage with the police at an early stage in their planning, in order to facilitate peaceful protest.

Tasers should never be used against peaceful protestors and the Government should make this commitment in its guidance on tasers. The Government should also report to Parliament every three months about the deployment and use of tasers, should monitor the health effects of tasers, and publish the results of that monitoring.

+ Full Document (PDF; 1.2 MB)

This entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 6:05 am and is filed under Government and politics, Human rights, Legal and law enforcement, Privacy, Social and cultural issues, United Kingdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.