Communication to the United Kingdom about the arrest and imprisonment of climate activists - Other

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On August 15, 2023, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Context of Climate Change, Mr. Fry, issued a communication to the United Kingdom about the arrest and imprisonment of climate activists Mr. Marcus Decker and Mr. Morgan Trowland. 
On October 17, 2022, Mr. Decker and Mr. Trowland had climbed the 60 meters high Queen Elizabeth II Bridge in Dartford to hang up a banner reading “Just Stop Oil”. Both men stayed on the bridge in hammocks for 36 hours, at a height of 55 meter, blocking traffic on the bridge for around 40 hours. They were removed by the police. The aim of their action was to request the Government of the United Kingdom to refrain from engaging in all new oil and gas licences and consent and to put an end to oil and gas. The protest was nonviolent and peaceful. 
On April 4, after a 7-day trial, Mr Decker and Mr. Trowland were convicted by a jury for causing public nuisance. Two weeks later, the Southend Crown Court sentenced them to 2 years and 7 months, and 3 years, respectively. The men unsuccessfully appealed against the length of their sentences, which they considered excessive and a ‘disproportionate interference with the exercise of their rights to the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The appeals court stated that no material error of principle had been made by the sentencing judge.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change, Mr. Fry, expressed concerns both regarding the arrest and severity of the sentences, especially since they were significantly more severe than previous sentences imposed for this type of offending in the past. He acknowledged the severity of the response may in part result from the new Public Order Bill of May 2022, which entered into force in May 2023, and which was the subject of a separate communication in December 2022 (JOL GBR 16/2022). Reiterating the unique severity of the climate crisis for human rights, and the importance of environmental human rights defenders in this context, the Rapporteur is ‘gravely concerned about the potential flow-on effect that the severity of the sentences could have on civil society and the work of activists, expressing concerns about the triple planetary crisis and, in particular, the impacts of climate change on human rights and on future generations’. 
Stressing the right to peaceful assembly in Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and its interpretation outlined in HRC General Comment No. 37, the rapporteur reiterates that ‘peaceful assemblies can in some cases be inherently or deliberately disruptive’, and as such require a ‘significant degree of toleration’. Any prohibitions on ‘public disorder’ in domestic laws, should not be used unduly to restrict peaceful assembly. States have both negative obligations not to interfere with rights of peaceful assembly, and positive obligations ‘to facilitate and protect these rights in accordance with international human rights standards’. The UN Special Rapporteur further points to provisions on protection of (environmental) human rights defenders in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (1998); HRC Resolution 31/32 (2016) on human rights defenders; HRC Resolution 48/13 (2021) on the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment; and UN Framework Principles on Human Rights and Environment (2018). The applicable legal framework had also been outlined in the communication of December 2022. 
Mr. Fry wishes to receive more information from the UK Government about how the Public Order Act and the sentencing of Mr. Decker and Mr. Trowland’ are ‘compatible with international norms and standards as stated, among other things, in the UDHR and the ICCPR’, and why it was deemed necessary, in light of the current climate crisis, to limit the exercise of right to peaceful assembly. The UK Government has not responded to these communications so far.