UK gives raw deal to protesters

REPORT: REPRESSIVE MEASURES AGAINST MARCHERS

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Human Rights Watch warned yesterday the UK has “severely restricted the right to protest” in recent years and was expanding “repressive measures” against peaceful demonstrators.

A report titled Silencing the Streets: The Right to Protest Under Attack in the UK, comes a few weeks after Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was arrested and then released at a London protest in support of the Palestine Action group, banned under UK anti-terror laws.

“The UK is now adopting protest-control tactics imposed in countries where democratic safeguards are collapsing,” HRW researcher Lydia Gall said.

“The Labour government has taken a deeply alarming direction on protest rights and appears to be determined to suppress these rights further,” the rights organisation said.