Whatever you think of the monarchy, and however you feel about maybe 100 million pounds of people’s taxes being spent on lavish ceremonies in the midst of an epic cost-of-living crisis in the UK, let’s all agree on one thing: we all have a right to peacefully protest such things if we disagree with them.
Unfortunately, this core concept was apparently abandoned on Saturday, as UK police arrested at least 64 people during the coronation of the country’s new king.
My colleague Yasmine Ahmed, HRW’s UK Director, called reports of people being arrested for peaceful protest, “incredibly alarming.”
“This is something you would expect to see in Moscow not London.”
Just as the coronation marks one key shift for the country, the arrests highlight another – one that’s far more important as far as rights are concerned.
A new Public Order Bill, aimed at criminalizing many protesters, passed through the UK Parliament last month, with key parts coming into force just days ahead of the coronation. The Bill is one reason why we have been warning about, “the most significant assault on human rights protections in the UK in decades.”
And HRW has hardly been alone. UK rights group Liberty, for example, has been calling out government moves to equate peaceful demonstrations with extremism and says the Public Order Bill strikes at the heart of our fundamental right to protest.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk calls the Public Order Bill “deeply troubling” and “incompatible with the UK’s international human rights obligations...”
He said it was “particularly worrying” police now had expanded powers to stop and search individuals “including without suspicion.” And he called out “disproportionate criminal sanctions on people organizing or taking part in peaceful protests.”
After this weekend’s coronation, many are discussing the future of the monarchy under Charles III, but that feels more like a distraction to me. What we should all be looking at is the disturbing present reality the UK government is creating on rights.
As my colleague Yasmine says, “From your right to protest to your ability to hold institutions to account, fundamental and hard-won rights are being systematically dismantled.”
