It's a road to destruction': climate defenders facing surge in reprisals, says UN expert

"Human rights defenders organizing to prevent climate catastrophe are facing a surge in reprisals, as governments around the world denigrate, delegitimize and criminalize activists in spite of worsening global heating, a top United Nations official has told the Guardian. Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur for human rights defenders since 2020, has documented hundreds of cases where states have sought to smear and silence climate defenders engaged in peaceful protest, non-violent civil disobedience and litigation."

"It documents state repression including police violence and surveillance, civil litigation deployed to deliberately wear down and silence climate defenders known as Slapp (strategic lawsuits against public participation), as well as bogus criminal charges ranging from sedition, criminal defamation, terrorism and conspiracy to trespass, to public disorder and to disobedience. In December 2023, the Just Stop Oil member Stephen Gingell became the first person to be jailed under the UK's new public order legislation after taking part for 30 minutes in a peaceful slow-march protest on a London road."

Human rights defenders organizing to prevent climate catastrophe face rising reprisals as governments denigrate, delegitimize and criminalize activists despite worsening global heating. State tactics include police violence, surveillance, civil litigation designed to wear down activists (SLAPPs), and bogus criminal charges ranging from sedition and criminal defamation to terrorism, conspiracy, trespass, public disorder and disobedience. Leading democratic states such as the UK, Germany, France and the US are frequently implicated in repression and restrictions on the right to protest. New public order laws have enabled arrests and imprisonment of peaceful protesters. Such repression risks silencing civic climate action and obstructing an effective, just transition.

Read at www.theguardian.com