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CRIME

Detentions had ‘chilling effect’ on G8 protests

Two German anti-globalisation protesters detained for five days in 2007 to prevent them from demonstrating against a G8 summit won a victory at the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday.

Detentions had 'chilling effect' on G8 protests
Photo: DPA

The judges ruled that Germany had violated the rights to liberty and free assembly of the two activists, who were aged 22 at the time.

The two, identified as Sven Schwabe and M.G., were arrested in the northeastern city of Rostock on June 3, 2007, three days before the start of the summit of the world’s most industrialized nations, and held until the day after the meeting closed.

They were among tens of thousands who had travelled to the region to demonstrate against the summit in the nearby Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, where world leaders met behind a tight security cordon.

The two claimants were detained during a police identity check in a parking lot outside a prison, next to a van in which officers found banners, one of them proclaiming “Freedom for all prisoners”.

The applicants have argued the slogan called on police to end the arrests of demonstrators, but a local court ordered their continued detention until June 9, suspecting they wanted to incite others to free the prisoners by force.

The protesters challenged the decision twice, to no avail.

The Strasbourg court found that the period of their detention – five and a half days – was “a considerable time” and said it was “not convinced” that their continuing detention could have reasonably been seen as necessary.

It also said that, if police had wanted to prevent them from inciting others to free the prisoners, it would have been sufficient to seize the banners.

The court found that the applicants, by planning to take part in the anti-G8 demonstrations, “had intended to participate in a debate on matters of public interest, namely the effects of globalisation on peoples lives.”

“By displaying the slogans on their banners, they had aimed to criticize the security measures taken by the police, in particular the high number of detentions,” the court said.

“Depriving them of their liberty for several days for trying to display the impugned banners had had a chilling effect on the expression of such an opinion and restricted public debate on that issue,” the judges found.

The court ruled that Germany had violated their rights to liberty and freedom of association and awarded each applicant €3,000 in damages plus costs and expenses.

AFP/mdm

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ENVIRONMENT

Climate protesters under fire in France, Germany, France and UK: UN expert

Environmental activists are increasingly facing hostility across Europe, a UN expert said, warning that the very right to protest was "at risk" in countries usually considered beacons of democracy.

Climate protesters under fire in France, Germany, France and UK: UN expert

Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, told AFP in an interview this week that he was deeply troubled by the hardening tone against climate activists in countries including France, Austria, Germany and Britain.

Government ministers have been throwing about terms like “eco terrorists” and “Green Talibans” to describe non-violent activists, he claimed, also blaming some media reporting for contributing to an increasingly hostile
public attitude.

“It creates a sort of chilling effect,” warned Forst, an independent expert appointed under the UN’s Aarhus Convention — a legally-binding text that provides for justice in environmental matters.

“Currently, the right to protest is at risk in Europe.”

Forst said he had recently visited several European countries after receiving complaints that activists faced treatment that allegedly violated the convention and international human rights law.

Following a visit to Britain, he publicly voiced alarm at the “toxic discourse” and “increasingly severe crackdown” on environmental defenders.

 ‘Regressive laws’ 

Forst charged that “regressive laws” in Britain were being used to slap climate activists with harsh penalties, with one activist sent to prison for six months for a 30-minute slow march disrupting traffic.

Another activist had been sentenced to 27 months behind bars in the UK, he said.

He also decried harsh sentences in other countries, including Germany.

Forst travelled to France last month following complaints about a crackdown on a drawn-out anti-motorway protest near the southwestern city of Toulouse.

Activists, called “squirrels”, who have been squatting in trees destined to be chopped down to make way for the A69 motorway, have accused law enforcement of denying them access to food and water and using floodlights to deprive them of sleep.

Forst said he had been blocked from bringing food to the activists, and was “shocked” by what he found.

“Obviously, deprivation of food, of drinking water, of sleep is clearly against international law,” said Forst, a French national.

They are “considered acts of torture in international texts”, he added. 

Dangerous

Forst said that European media coverage often focuses exclusively on the drama around demonstrations and not on the climate crisis prompting the protests.

The world is in a very “dangerous time”, he said, but the general public often do not understand why young people are “blocking access to airports, or gluing their hands on the floor”.

As a result, states have felt justified in developing new policies and laws, paving the way for police crackdowns, and increasingly harsh sentences.

In Britain, he said that some judges were even barring environmental defenders from using the word “climate” to explain their motivation to the jury.

Forst said that he was investigating whether big companies, especially in the oil and energy sector, might be lobbying to increase the pressure on climate activists.

“The most dangerous” companies were even “using security forces, connections with the mafia… to target and sometimes to kill defenders,” he said.

Forst said he was currently organising consultations in Latin America and Africa with environmental activists there who are facing attacks by companies.

He is also investigating whether companies based in Europe are, through local subsidiaries, contributing to attacks on activists.

And the expert blasted European countries for “a double standard” by supporting environmental defenders in other parts of the world but “not protecting their defenders inside Europe”.

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