We have written to the Secretary of State for Justice and the Home Department to add our voice to the many organisations supporting the 16 climate protesters who have received draconian prison sentences for peaceful protests. We call on the government to repeal the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act and restore our right to peaceful protest.
Please do use this letter as a template to send to your own MP, politicians and local press.
Dear Ministers,
Calling on the government to repeal the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act and restore our right to peaceful protest.
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has over 100 years’ experience seeking out the root causes of war and conflict, working through WILPF’s consultative status at the United Nations, and using negotiation and conciliation to bring an end to conflict. Our Manifesto, shared with you in advance of the 2024 election, included the following summary:
WILPF requests the government to enable and empower women to champion peace, demilitarisation and gender-just climate solutions from the local to international levels. It is essential to amplify women’s demands and incorporate feminist perspectives for peace and climate justice in policy-making and international agreements. We encourage the government to work consultatively and collaboratively with civil society, women rights organisations and experts on these issues.
I am therefore writing on behalf of WILPF UK to add our voice to the many organisations supporting the 16 climate protesters who have received draconian prison sentences for peaceful protests. With our prison system already overloaded (which the government has acknowledged) these jail sentences, some of which exceed the sentences applied for violent offences, are all the more indefensible.
We are disappointed and concerned that this government has not repealed the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act which was implemented by the last, Conservative, government. A key component of democracy is the right to protest; many of the rights which we take for granted now were won by protesters, whether they be suffragettes or trade unionists. As Helen Pankhurst, great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, has said: “The heavy-handed and disproportionate custodial sentences given in the UK to peaceful environmental activists speaking truth to power is worrying in the extreme.” Human rights legislation requires that sentencing must be proportionate where fundamental rights, such as the right to protest, are engaged. As you will be aware, the right to protest is protected under Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
If the government is not listening to the messages from the IPCC about climate and ecological breakdown, it is inevitable that protests will become more widespread and disruptive. The lack of media coverage of peaceful demonstrations, such as the Restore Nature Now event last summer, suggests that only disruptive protests get a hearing. Nevertheless, it cannot be right that those involved in peaceful (albeit disruptive) protests raising the alarm about the climate crisis receive longer jail sentences than people who participated in racially motivated violence last summer.
We are concerned that the outcome of the appeal hearings could have far-reaching implications for the future of peaceful protests about a range of issues, threatening our
democracy and civil liberties. As the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders said last year, the harsh sentences “set a dangerous precedent” for all peaceful protest to hold the government of the day accountable. The practice is at odds with Britain’s history and international practice and has been condemned by the UN and other international observers.
In conclusion, we call on the government to repeal the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act and restore our right to peaceful protest – a signature component of British democracy.
We look forward to hearing your response.
Yours in peace
Fiona McOwan, National Secretary, for WILPF UK Executive Committee
Sent to:
The Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department Home Office
The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP, Secretary of State for Justice Ministry of Justice
