US EditionHRW Warns Right to Protest 'Under Attack' in UK
Human Rights Watch reports UK’s Labour government expanded protest restrictions, with multi-year prison terms for nonviolent acts and broader police powers under pending legislation.
- On January 8, 2026, Human Rights Watch published the 47-page Silencing the Streets report, saying UK authorities have severely restricted protest rights and the Labour government expanded those measures.
- The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 broaden police powers to impose conditions, make pre-emptive arrests, and pursue prison for nonviolent protest, while the Crime and Policing Bill 2025 would expand bans on face coverings and restrict worship-area demonstrations.
- A key illustration is court treatment of climate activists, with five Just Stop Oil activists jailed two to five years, later reduced after the High Court found the sentences excessive, and at least 2,300 arrests following Palestine Action's proscription after damage to two RAF aircraft, police say.
- Human Rights Watch urged the UK government to repeal or amend PCSCA 2022 and POA 2023, reverse Palestine Action's proscription, and conduct a public inquiry reviewing unlawful protest arrests and convictions.
- HRW warned that these changes risk eroding democratic accountability by granting broad police powers and criminalizing peaceful protests, cautioning the UK against adopting tactics from countries where democratic safeguards are collapsing.
23 Articles
23 Articles
Watchdog warns UK protest restrictions undermine democracy and human rights
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Wednesday that UK authorities have “severely restricted” the right to protest, contravening international human rights obligations and creating an environment in which peaceful dissent can be treated as a criminal act. The report noted that the UK’s Labour government has not reversed extensive anti-protest laws introduced by the previous Conservative administration. These include the Police, Crime, Sentencing…
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HRW warns right to protest 'under attack' in UK
Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned Thursday that the UK has "severely restricted the right to protest" in recent years and was expanding "repressive measures" against peaceful demonstrators.
New human rights report slams Starmer's war on protest
A new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) has slammed Keir Starmer’s ‘lawfare’ war on UK citizens’ protest rights. It also demands an end to the criminalisation of civil resistance and changes to legislation to restore rights stolen by Starmer and his predecessors. Damning for Starmer The report, Silencing the Streets: The Right to Protest Under Attack in the United Kingdom, condemns: • Starmer’s use of pre-existing legislation like the ‘Police…
UK: Protest Crackdowns Undermine Democracy
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.
The right to protest is “under attack” in Britain, due to the adoption of extreme “restrictive” measures, which have progressively made the conditions and punishments applied even to completely peaceful demonstrations much stricter, the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounces in a report released today. The text, entitled “Sitting the Streets: The Right to Protest is Under Attack in the UK”, states that “undemocratic res…
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