The arrest of the Chief Steward, Chris Nineham, and various participants in the Palestine
Solidarity Campaign (PSC) demonstration on the 18 January 2025 and the subsequent
bringing of charges against Ben Jamal, the Director of the PSC, represent a
disproportionate, unwarranted and dangerous assault on the right to assembly and protest in
Britain.
This right has been held central to democratic life in Britain for centuries. Advancing the
causes of the Chartists, trade unionists, the Suffragettes and many more. It is now formally
protected via the Human Rights Act 1998 through Articles 10 and 11 of the European
Convention on Human Rights. Taken together, these two articles have been interpreted by
the European Court of Human Rights as conferring on individuals an extensive right to
peaceful protest, which imposes stringent obligations, both negative and positive, on public
bodies to respect and facilitate the right to protest.
Over the last few years, this right has been undermined by a raft of new enactments, and by
a shift in policing tactics that emphasises controlling and limiting protest, rather than
facilitating it, as required by both European and international legal standards. This assault on
the right to protest has heightened in the last year, with anti-war and pro-Palestine protestors
experiencing particularly acute attacks on their rights to peacefully protest Israel’s genocide
in Gaza.
The conditions imposed by the Metropolitan Police on the PSC demonstration on 18 January
2025 were disproportionate and an abuse of police powers. Despite a demonstrable track
record of overwhelmingly peaceful protests for over a year, the police prevented the
demonstration to assemble near, or march towards, the BBC on Saturday without offering
any compelling evidence. The police thus seemed to be motivated by political considerations
that seek to limit the efficacy of the protesters and shield state institutions from criticism.
The subsequent arrest of the Chief Steward and others based on factual claims that
available video evidence seems to clearly controvert, further reflects this abuse of police
powers. It is a worrying escalation in the assault on the right to protest in general, and on
anti-war and pro-Palestine protests in particular.
As lawyers and legal scholars, we echo the concerns of the Joint Committee on Human
Rights, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and many others that the drift of British
law and policing poses a fundamental threat to the right to protest. A threat that it behoves
all of us concerned with human rights, equality and the rule of law to resist.
We believe the charges should be dropped against those arrested, or subsequently charged,
in relation to alleged public order offences on 18 January 2025, and that an independent
investigation should be conducted into the policing of this protest. More fundamentally, we
call for a repeal of the raft of anti-protest laws passed in recent years, and a recalibration of
the law in a way which genuinely protects the right to protest.
