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31 March 2025
UK authorities have severely restricted the right to protest, in contravention of their international human rights obligations, creating an environment in which peaceful dissent is increasingly treated as a criminal act, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today (08 Jan).
The 47-page report, ‘Silencing the Streets: The Right to Protest Under Attack in the UK’, states that the UK’s Labour government has failed to reverse sweeping anti-protest laws introduced by the previous Conservative government.
Instead, Labour has attempted to expand them with the Crime and Policing Bill 2025 and through the unprecedented misuse of terrorism legislation to target and criminalise peaceful protest.
The Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently in the House of Lords, is set to go further by giving police even greater powers.
‘The UK is now adopting protest-control tactics imposed in countries where democratic safeguards are collapsing. The UK should oppose such measures, not replicate and endorse them.’
LYDIA GALL
Senior Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch
In a separate report, also published today, JUSTICE warns of the repressive impact of wide-ranging reforms introduced under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (PCSCA) and the Public Order Act 2023 (POA).
‘Striking the Balance: Protest Rights and Public Order’ reveals that in just four years, successive governments have introduced a cascade of offences and police powers that dramatically lower the threshold for criminalising peaceful protest, erode vital human rights protections and create widespread confusion for the public, police and courts.
Police can now curb protests on the basis of noise – an essential feature of any mass gathering – putting anyone who attends a large protest at risk of arrest and prosecution.
Members of the public can also now be arrested for carrying items as innocuous as cable ties, bike locks or glue, on suspicion that they may be used for ‘locking‑on’.
JUSTICE argues that these changes herald a fundamental constitutional shift in the law – away from a framework for facilitating peaceful protest towards a system for expanding state control and pre-empting dissent.
‘To butcher one of the great protest songs: how many times must human rights groups raise the alarm, before politicians see we can no longer protest? These reports paint a disturbing picture of coercive laws, chaotic policing, and cowed protesters. They add to a growing chorus of criticism around the world against the UK government’s apparent disregard for human rights and its willingness to restrict the right to protest.
‘Greenpeace supports their calls to strike out the protest clauses in the Crime & Policing Bill that is currently going through Parliament, and for a wider review of anti-protest laws. We also welcome their proposals for greater parliamentary scrutiny and for better data on the arrests, convictions and sentencing of non-violent protesters. These measures would begin to turn the tide on this severe crackdown on the democratic rights we all hold.’WILL MCCALLUM
Greenpeace UK’s co-executive director
The Labour government has taken a deeply alarming direction on protest rights and appears to be determined to suppress these rights further instead of requiring government accountability for policing, Human Rights Watch said.
Recent protest restrictions result from a combination of vague statutory provisions and broad police discretion, creating a legal environment in which the authorities can curtail demonstrations with limited oversight.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (PCSCA 2022) and the Public Order Act 2023 (POA 2023) broaden police discretion to impose conditions on protesters, make pre-emptive arrests and pursue prison sentences for nonviolent protest activity, which in the past typically resulted in fines or community service.
The report, based on research in 2024 and 2025, shows that protesters are increasingly detained, charged and in some cases sentenced to multi-year prison terms for non-violent actions such as attending planning meetings
The inconsistent and sometimes arbitrary enforcement of these provisions contributes to confusion and has a chilling effect on dissent.
A striking example of overreach is the case of a retired social worker, Trudi Warner, arrested and charged with contempt of court for quietly holding a sign outside a courthouse informing jurors of their rights.
The High Court dismissed the case as ‘fanciful’ and confirmed that she had not attempted to influence any juror. Despite this, the Labour government initially filed an appeal before abandoning the case.
A stark illustration of the escalating crackdown on peaceful protest is the case of five Just Stop Oil activists who, in July 2024, were sentenced to between two and five years in prison for merely joining a Zoom call to plan a protest.
On appeal, the High Court ruled in March 2025 that the sentences were ‘manifestly excessive’ and disproportionate to the nonviolent conduct involved.
Nevertheless, the court only reduced the activists’ prison sentences marginally, in one instance from five to four years.
Such cases raise serious concerns for democratic accountability, as the expansion of state authority risks suppressing public participation and weakening the ability of people to hold the government to account.
The new Crime and Policing Bill 2025 would deepen the crackdown on protest by expanding police powers to ban face coverings by protesters, restrict demonstrations near places of worship and impose conditions that could put people with insecure immigration status, such as asylum seekers and undocumented persons, at risk of deportation.
Domestic and international human rights bodies have warned that such restrictions are vague, disproportionate and unnecessary.
The UK remains legally obliged to protect freedom of expression and peaceful assembly under both domestic and international law, including the Human Rights Act 1998, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (articles 19 and 21) and the European Convention on Human Rights (articles 10 and 11).
The government should repeal or amend the PCSCA 2022 and POA 2023 to remove unnecessary restrictions on protests, strengthen the Human Rights Act to prevent political interference with protests and stop using counterterrorism legislation against protesters, Human Rights Watch said.
The UK government should also establish a substantial public inquiry into the policing of protests under the PCSCA 2022 and POA 2023 and ensure that policing of protests complies with international human rights law.
‘The UK should be protecting the right to protest instead of stripping away people’s rights. Lawmakers should revise the new law to remove measures that would further restrict the right to protest.’
LYDIA GALL
Senior Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch
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