EHRC calls for clearer guidance for officers to avoid creating a ‘chilling effect’ on freedom of expression
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The UK’s official human rights watchdog has written to the government and police expressing concern at a potentially “heavy-handed” approach to protests about Gaza and urging clearer guidance for officers in enforcing the law.
In the letter to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, and Mark Rowley, the head of the Metropolitan police, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said the perception that peaceful protest could attract disproportionate police attention “undermines confidence in our human rights protections”.
While much of the recent focus has been about arrests of people accused of expressing support for Palestine Action, recently proscribed as a terrorist group, the focus of the EHRC letter is on people who have faced police challenge for demonstrating more generally about the situation in Gaza.
