Stop the Criminalisation and Repression of Climate and Environmental Protests Around the World

Table of Contents

• State actors should operate with a as protest should be regarded as a reasonable response to the urgent and existential nature of the climate crisis. 1
• Mechanisms of should be implemented to generate of the meaning of terms like serious disruption or organised crime used in protest cases. 1
• Public authorities must conduct regular evaluations and publish data on the extent to which has been the rule and any restrictions to those rights only strict exceptions. 1
• The use of against climate and environmental activists 1
• States must ensure that the Right to Life Article 3 UN Human Rights Declaration is protected and that for their work 1
• The full report based on data from Armed Conflict Location Event Data ACLED and Global Witness can be found here . 2
• The research was funded by the University of Bristol Faculty of Social Science and Law Strategic Research Fund. 2
• Dr Oscar Berglund Senior Lecturer in International Public and Social Policy School for Policy Studies University of Bristol Oscar.Berglundbristol.ac.uk 2
• We have identified four broad mechanisms through which climate and environmental protests are crim inalised and repressed 2
• Anti-Protest Laws 2
• Killings and disappearances 2
• Concerning trends include 2
• Over 2000 Environmental Defenders have been killed since 2012 2
• Police violence and arrests are common 2
• There has been a flurry of new legislation criminalising climate and environmental activists that often undermine existing Human and Civil Rights legislation and conventions 2
• Legislation intended to be used against organised crime and terrorism are used against climate and environmental activists 2
• Protesters are sentenced to lengthy prison sentences designed to act as a deterrence to future activists 2