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** SPOTLIGHT
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Photo: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire) via Reuters Connect

This week, in an unprecedented move, the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the UK government's plans to use anti-terrorism legislation to ban the campaigning group Palestine Action.

The decision is a response to a direct protest action, as a group of activists broke into RAF Brize Norton and spray painted two military jets, protesting the United Kingdom’s ‘direct participation in the commission of genocide and war crimes across the Middle East’.

If this ban goes through, the consequences are severe. Simply being a member of Palestine Action, supporting their work, or even sharing their content online could be treated as a criminal offence, with penalties including prison time.

The use of terrorism powers to target activists sets a deeply worrying precedent for freedom of expression. The government must urgently change course – and respect the right to protest and dissent.

Quinn McKew, ARTICLE 19’s Executive Director, said:

‘Direct action is an act of expression with a long history of drawing attention to injustice. The protests today are direct descendents of the suffragettes chaining themselves to gates as they called for women’s voting rights. The UK government celebrates their historic bravery, while systematically weakening and criminalising protest today. The demonisation of protest by subsequent governments threatens free speech of all.

‘We urge the UK Government to immediately reverse this highly disproportionate decision or provide further explanation that would justify such a provocative and unprecedented move.’
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Photo: REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

On 21 June, popular blogger and prominent activist Belarusian Siarhei Tsikhanouski, alongside 13 others, was released from prison after spending 5 years behind bars.

Head of Programmes and Strategy for Europe Joanna Szymańska said:

‘We welcome the recent release of 14 political prisoners, including Siarhei Tsikhanouski, who spent more than 700 days incommunicado, and whose unjust detention has come to symbolise the regime’s ruthless repression.

‘However, over a thousand people remain behind bars for exercising their fundamental rights. The testimonies and physical condition of those recently freed starkly reveal the inhumane and degrading conditions endured by political prisoners in Belarusian detention facilities.’

The good news is a reminder that we have a duty to continue to support the Belarusian civil society and dissidents. We must keep Belarus high on the European and global ([link removed]) agenda, demand decisive action against the Lukashenko regime, and, above all, continue calling for the unconditional release ([link removed]) of all political prisoners.

We won’t stop until this becomes reality.

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