West silences activists at home while promoting rights abroad – report

Rich democratic nations are deploying harsh measures against climate change activists, while criticizing states in the Global South for similar actions, according to a report by Climate Rights International.

The report highlights the increasingly “heavy-handed treatment” of eco activists in Australia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, the UK, and the US, emphasizing that authorities in those nations are violating their legal commitments to protect basic human rights.

According to the study, the drastic steps taken by governments in nations perceived as democratic include lengthy prison terms, preventive detention, and intimidation and harassment online and in the media.

The 70-page report entitled “On Thin Ice: Disproportionate Responses to Climate Change Protesters in Democratic Countries” also highlights how such governments criticize authorities in developing nations for not respecting the right to peaceful protest.

“Governments too often take such a strong and principled view about the right to peaceful protest in other countries – but when they don’t like certain kinds of protests at home they pass laws and deploy the police to stop them,” the executive director of Climate Rights International, Brad Adams, told The Guardian.

Judicial authorities in several countries including the UK, Germany and the US have been imposing “record-breaking” sentences for “non-violent protest,” the report said, emphasizing that some national and state governments are using preemptive arrests and detention of those suspected of planning rallies.

Governments in Western states are also adopting new laws to make the vast majority of protests illegal, and allowing more severe penalties for demonstrators, the report noted.

The researchers accused Western authorities of undermining the right to a fair trial by taking legal steps to stop juries from hearing about people’s motives for taking part in protests during court hearings.

In one UK case in July, five Just Stop Oil protesters were convicted of conspiracy to cause public nuisance by blocking a highway, and were handed the longest-ever sentences for a nonviolent protest. One of the group received a five-year sentence, while four others received four-year terms.