09 February 2024
Exercising Power from the Outside
Since 2019, anti-Islam non-parliamentary activists have explored the limits to freedom of speech in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands through their provocative Quran desecration acts. Using the non-parliamentarian arena to exercise power from a position of minority, the far-right activist Rasmus Paludan and his party were able to effectively push the Danish constitutional boundaries, while at the same time affecting the geopolitical situation. While the protests so far only have had legal repercussions regarding blasphemy and freedom of speech in Denmark, it clearly demonstrates that non-parliamentary far-right activists also hold certain legislative powers. Continue reading >>
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08 August 2023
(In)tolerance to Civil Disobedience in the UK
Disruptive environmental protest has become a hugely controversial issue in the UK, both politically and legally. It is likely to be a wedge issue in the upcoming General Election. Both major political parties are talking tough on the issue, and the government has instituted draconian new laws. The courts, for their part, are permitting ever more 'Mega Persons Unknown injunctions' and imposing increasingly longer prison terms for peaceful – but disruptive – protests. Part of this is an international trend, caused by the indisputable evidence of global warming and the increasingly activist environmental movement. But from a UK practitioner’s perspective, it is deeply worrying that there are now a large number of peaceful protesters in the prison system, or facing huge bills for legal costs, or both. Continue reading >>20 December 2022
The Road to Repression
On 2 December 2022, the UN Special Rapporteur Freedom of Association sent a remarkable Tweet. “Australia – ”, the Special Rapporteur tweeted, “I am alarmed at #NSW court’s prison term against #ClimateProtester Deanna Coco and refusal to grant bail until a March 2023 appeal hearing. Peaceful protesters should never be criminalised or imprisoned.” The Special Rapporteur was referring to the arrest of Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco to 15 months in prison with a non-parole period of eight months for blocking one of five lanes of traffic on Sydney Harbour Bridge during a climate change protest for 28 minutes. Continue reading >>
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10 November 2020
Protest and Pandemic
As of 4 November, twenty countries across Europe have now re-introduced either lockdowns or restrictive pandemic measures. The reality that while the pandemic is temporary, it will nevertheless be lengthy, has begun to set in. In response to new restrictions, widespread protests has been reported across Europe, sometimes resulting in violent clashes with police forces. Where it is both highly likely that current restrictions will not be be the last – particularly following mass-migration during the Christmas period – and protests are likely to increase, what then? Continue reading >>
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30 October 2020
Filling the Power Vacuum
Massive protests broke out after the Kyrgyz parliamentary elections on October 4, 2020. What unfolded in the aftermath is a political saga that nobody could have expected. At the moment, Sadyr Japarov, a convicted criminal, is acting as president and prime minister and moving forward with a number of unconstitutional initiatives. They could erase all positive achievements that Kyrgyzstan was able to reach in the course of the last fifteen years. Continue reading >>28 October 2020
Große Erwartungen
Vergangenen Sonntag, am 25. Oktober 2020, haben die Chilenen in einer historischen Abstimmung den Weg für eine neue Verfassung freigemacht. Schon über ein Jahr protestieren die Bürger des Landes und nun ist es ihnen gelungen, diese Proteste durch das Referendum auf eine demokratische Weise zu kanalisieren. Entsprechend hoch sind die Erwartungen an die neue, noch zu erarbeitende Verfassung. Continue reading >>
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04 September 2020