Tough new laws, thousands of detentions, and scandalous prison sentences – these are some measures European governments have adopted in recent years to discourage climate protesters, among attempts to picture the climate movement as “extremist” and label it as “criminal”. The rising tendency to criminalise peaceful protesters is alarming, as we notice this worrying trend in many of the established democracies of Western Europe.
In the UK, strict laws were issued to enable harsher punishments for participants in peaceful protests, organised mainly by Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion. Since the introduction of the controversial legislation, several activists have been imprisoned, including the record four- and five-year prison sentences handed down in July 2024.[2]
In Germany, members of the Last Generation movement face tough measures, especially in the state of Bavaria, as Last Generation is considered to be a “criminal organisation” according to the German law.
In France, the grassroots movement “The Uprisings of the Earth”, opposing controversial projects of building large water reservoirs, was met with brutal police repression and attempts by the French government to label the movement as “extremist”.
Drawing similarities to both the UK and Germany, the Italian government[3] has approached the activists by adopting an “eco-vandalism” law, imposing disproportionate fines on protesters while misusing the “anti-mafia” law to deal with the climate movement as a “criminal organisation”.
Controversial developments have been reported in other smaller European countries, for example Austria,[4] Finland,[5] and the Netherlands.[6]
Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention, pointed out that while some countries, such as Italy or Germany, apply old rules such as anti-mafia laws to the acts of climate protesters, in other countries, such as the UK, strict new rules have been adopted in reaction to the rising acts of civil disobedience.[7] Forst recognises, in his position paper from February 2024, four major areas where increasing repression has been reported: the media and political discourse, legislation and policy, law enforcement (police and prosecution), and the approach of the courts.[8]
The new wave of intensified repression of non-violent climate protests from state authorities stressed the importance of judicial reviews. For example, French and Finnish courts have ultimately ruled the government’s measures unlawful. On the other hand, the adoption of restrictive laws in the UK or Italy does not allow much discretion for the judiciary.
Rather than accepting the demands of civil society to phase out fossil fuels and increase climate action to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, governments across Europe have chosen a path of increased repression. Constitutional freedoms of assembly and expression are under threat, which is not a good sign for a democracy.
Dunja Mijatović, the Commissioner for Human Rights under the Council of Europe, has expressed her concerns about these developments.[9] She acknowledged the important role of peaceful protests for democracy and the enjoyment of human rights and urged governments to engage in a meaningful social dialogue and improve the participation of defenders of human rights rather than opting for more repression.
It seems that to European governments, the activities of non-violent protesters are viewed as more dangerous than the climate crisis itself.
However, it is sadly to be expected that these tendencies of disproportionate persecution of environmental activists will only grow in the coming months and years. The record prison sentences of British activists from July 2024 are among many disturbing signs.[10]
Repressive measures, however, do not seem to discourage the protesters. In late July 2024, several airports in Europe and North America, including Germany, the UK, and Austria, were disrupted by activists under the banner “Oil Kills”.[11] 13 groups in ten countries participated in protests demanding an “emergency international response to save lives”.[12] The airport blockades started just a day after the hottest day on record according to scientists,[13] a strong symbol and sign of motivation behind increasingly risky acts of civil disobedience.
The examples of increasing persecution of the right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly relating to peaceful climate protest should be worrying for everyone. At the end of the day, civic rights and a stable climate are important for us all.
As Katy Watts, a lawyer from the British NGO Liberty, notes: “Protest is a fundamental right, not a gift from the state. Government should be protecting our right to protest, not criminalising it.”[14]
United Kingdom
Strict Laws and Unprecedented Jailings for Climate Activism
Since 2022, the UK has increasingly tightened its laws with heavy consequences for participants in peaceful protests, thus disproportionately threatening the right to freedom of expression and right to freedom of a peaceful assembly. These worrying tendencies were stressed by the report issued by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Dunja Matovic (“the Commissioner”), from November 2022[15] and the statement of the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention, Michel Forst, from January 2024.[16]
Media and political discourse
Both reports note that these tendencies to criminalise public demonstrations were motivated to discourage protests by members of Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil, and other climate activists, while Dunja Matovic puts such changes into an overall context of increasing verbal targeting and accusations against defenders of human rights and human rights lawyers by citizens and even members of the UK Government and Parliament.[17]
Michel Forst has described the discourse used by mainstream media and political figures as “toxic”.[18] For example, the home secretary Suella Braverman, from the Conservative Party, has warned that disruption caused by peaceful protesters is a “threat to our way of life” and urged the police to “take a firmer line” when dealing with protesters.[19]
The influential conservative think-tank Policy Exchange has issued a report entitled Extremism Rebellion,[20] suggesting that the practices of Extinction Rebellion might turn into more extreme or even “terrorist” ones in the future, while calling for tougher laws related to public protest. Sadly, some proposals of Policy Exchange, which has received funding from the oil company ExxonMobil,[21] were implemented in 2022.
New restrictive laws as a repressive tool
In April 2022, the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act was adopted. It makes it possible to restrict or ban demonstrations under the broad notion of “serious disruption”. The level of noise generated by protesters could be used as a reason to ban a protest. The Act introduced a number of offences related to protests; the criminal offence of “public nuisance” under the Act is punishable by up to ten years’ imprisonment.[22] Protests near Parliament are also restricted by the Act. According to the Commissioner, the provisions of the Act are “broadly formulated and thus risk being arbitrarily applied” and are likely to interfere with the rights laid down in the European Convention on Human Rights.[23]
These measures were followed by the Public Order Act of 2023. This Act introduces several tough measures against public protesters which raised concerns in e.g. Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights and were initially rejected in the legislative process. Several practices by which peaceful protesters express their participatory rights are now classed as criminal offences, among them blocking traffic or infrastructure and the practice of “locking on” (“attaching oneself to something as a protest tactic”), which may be as simple as an act of holding hands in a “human chain”.
The Public Order Act also introduces new stop and search powers for the police connected to the named offences and there is a possibility of issuing so-called “serious disruption prevention orders”, which enables courts to “impose conditions on individuals following a conviction for a protest-related offence, including reporting requirements, electronic tagging, restrictions on entering specific places, restrictions on association with other individuals, or restrictions on carrying specific items which might be used to engage in a protest-related offence”.[24]
Judicial excesses
The concerns expressed by the Commissioner were unfortunately soon proved to be reasonable by the practice of law enforcement authorities.
In December 2023, Stephen Gingell, a father of three and a peaceful climate protester from Just Stop Oil, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for participation in a slow march on a public road for only about 30 minutes.[25] It is thought to be the first jailing under the Public Order Act and perhaps the first imprisonment in the UK since the 1930s for a peaceful protest.[26] Gingell appealed.
This is so far the harshest use of Section 7 of the Public Order Act, which bans any act “which interferes with the use or operation of any key national infrastructure in England and Wales”. Under the same law, around 60 people were arrested at a march in front of Parliament.[27] Only in November 2023, the police arrested at least 630 peaceful Just Stop Oil protesters; at least 276 were charged, 125 of those under Section 7.[28]
Even harsher penalties were imposed on two peaceful protesters for committing an offence of “public nuisance”. Marcus Decker and Morgan Trowland were jailed for two years and seven months and three years, respectively. These were, at the time, the longest imprisonment sentences in the history of peaceful protest in the UK.[29]
Sadly, these record-breaking sentences were surpassed only a year later. In July 2024, five supporters of Just Stop Oil (aged 22 to 58 years) received shocking sentences of four to five years in jail.[30] In a process described as a “farce” and “a low point in British justice”,[31] they were convicted of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance. All five had attended a Zoom call to recruit potential participants in the organisation’s activities. The judge of the Southwark crown court described all five activists as “fanatics”, while refusing to take evidence on the climate crisis into account.
The UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst expressed deep concerns over the fact that participation in a Zoom call discussing peaceful protest would be enough to send someone to prison for four years. “How a sentence of this magnitude can be either reasonable, proportional or serve a legitimate public purpose is beyond comprehension,” wrote Forst in an open letter,[32] declaring the day as being a “dark day for peaceful environmental protest”.[33] He also noted that in the case of Mr. Shaw, one of the five convicted activists, he had already spent 113 days in prison awaiting trial and was living for one and a half years on draconian bail conditions, which are measures tough enough to be in violation of the Aarhus Convention.[34] Michel Forst also urged the new British government to ensure that Mr. Shaw’s sentence is reduced in line with international law.
“These sentences are not a one-off anomaly but the culmination of years of repressive legislation, overblown government rhetoric, and a concerted assault on the right of juries to deliberate according to their conscience,” said Amy Cameron of Greenpeace.[35]
Activists are not facing only criminal proceedings, but also civil injunctions, which ban protests in certain areas, such as public roadways. For breaching these injunctions, protesters face up to two years in prison and an unlimited fine.[36] Thus, protesters can be subject to both criminal and civil proceedings.[37]
The procedural rights of protesters are also violated; for example, in recent cases judges did not allow prosecuted protesters to explain to the jury their motivation to take part in such protests. Activist David Nixon was jailed for eight weeks for disobeying a judge’s instruction not to mention climate change.[38]
There are other examples of government attempts to discourage protesters. Trudi Warner was prosecuted for contempt of court for holding up a sign outside a court which read “Jurors, you have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to your conscience.” This was decided by the then solicitor-general Michael Tomlison, now serving as a minister of the Conservative government. The accusations were dismissed by the judge.[39]
Peaceful protesters also face “highly concerning” bail conditions, which are being imposed on them while awaiting a criminal trial. The protesters may be on bail for up to two years and in many cases, harsh conditions have already been imposed, including prohibitions on engaging in any protest or going into a particular area. Some peaceful protesters were required to wear electronic ankle tags, some including GPS tracking or a 10 pm to 7 am curfew.[40]
Challenges ahead
Whether the situation improves with a new Labour government after 14 years of Conservative rule remains to be seen. The new government has promised to end new UK oil and gas licensing. This was acknowledged by Just Stop Oil in an open letter to the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, while the group demands the phasing out of existing oil and gas projects.[41] The core demand of the organisation is that “the UK government works with other countries to establish a fossil fuel treaty to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas, and coal by 2030.”[42]
As of July 2024, Just Stop Oil has been participating in international “Oil Kills” protests blocking airports. Ten participants were arrested in connection with a blockade at Heathrow Airport. Eight of them were imprisoned without trial.[43]
“As long as political leaders fail to take swift and decisive action to protect our communities from the worst effects of climate breakdown, Just Stop Oil supporters, working with other groups internationally, will take the proportional action necessary to generate much-needed political pressure,” Just Stop Oil’s statement reads.[44]
Germany
Climate Movement as a Criminal Organisation?
In Germany, the Last Generation movement (Letzte Generation) and their protests face increasing repression from the state. Several German cities have imposed city-wide bans on Last Generation and other climate-related protests that are not notified to the authorities prior to the protest and e.g. expressly forbid participants in these protests to sit down or glue themselves to the road.[45] Last Generation was also classified as a “criminal organisation”, with several harsh implications.
According to the decision of the Munich Regional Court, the Last Generation movement fulfils the requirements for a “criminal organisation”. In order to be classified as such, it does not have to be the main purpose of the organisation to commit crimes.[46] Blockades and interruptions to traffic and infrastructure are, according to the Bavarian courts, minor crimes, which means that search warrants are legal.[47] The prosecution of Last Generation for the offence of “forming a criminal organisation” grants the authorities far-reaching powers of investigation that include telephone-tapping, geolocation, and property searches. Members of the public can no longer donate to the movement as a donation would make them liable for the offence of “financing a criminal organisation”.[48]
The treatment of Last Generation as a “criminal organisation” led to police raids in several German states. The movement’s website was, on the instructions of the public prosecutor, confiscated and shut down.[49]
According to Christian Bläul, spokesperson for Last Generation, he himself was suspected in the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office's investigation and thus “his phone and the phones of family members were tapped and his apartment was searched”.[50]
Peaceful protesters are increasingly being prosecuted on more serious charges, such as “criminal coercion”,[51] and there is evidence of police brutality, police officers using so-called “pain grips” on protesters, “deliberately inflicting intense pain by folding their hands down flat against their wrists, sometimes with plastic cable ties, in order to forcibly remove protesters from the road”.[52] Peaceful protesters face being arrested or fined large sums. For example, an unannounced protest in Würzburg led to 43 members of Last Generation being arrested by police, and seven of them were kept in detention overnight. In Nürnberg, the city threatened to fine those attending Last Generation protests up to 3000 euros.[53]
In Bavaria, the Bavarian Police Act enables courts to order a person to be held in preventive detention for a period of 30 days (which can be renewed for another 30 days) even before the person is suspected or accused of a specific crime.[54] This provision has been misused against peaceful protesters since 2022. In September 2023, Munich police took around 30 members[55] of Last Generation into preventive custody lasting up to 30 days.[56] Simple identity checks can lead to unnecessarily long detention for seven days in Germany.[57]
The ruthlessness of the Bavarian police is illustrated by the experience of the 28-year-old activist Simon Lachner, who was detained by police officers even before he left his home to prevent him from attending a protest in Regensburg, where he was supposed to “glue himself to a street”.[58]
Environmental protesters are also unfairly accused of crimes of negligence. For example, climate protesters blocking a motorway “were accused of contributing to the death of a cyclist in a nearby accident, and widely condemned. The authorities, however, eventually determined that the protesters had not been responsible for the cyclist’s death.”[59]
In June 2023 the German Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser cited a federal criminal statistic, according to which Last Generation activists were responsible for 580 alleged criminal offences (mostly damage to property). 780 people were, as of June 2023, the subjects of police investigations.[60] The strategy of Last Generation was criticised by members of the centre-left government, including the Vice-Chancellor and minister from the Green Party, Robert Habeck.[61]
Most recently, members of Last Generation have blocked runways at Frankfurt Airport. The German Ministry of the Interior wants to punish the unauthorised access to the airport with up to two years in prison. Faeser has called the demonstration “dangerous, dumb, and criminal” while proposing more severe punishments for acts of civil disobedience.[62]
France
Leading Environmental Movement Labelled as “Ecoterrorist” amidst Allegations of Police Brutality
In France, the police are infamous and criticised for their brutality,[63] now including their reaction to environmental protests. In March 2023, a violent clash between protesters from the Uprisings of the Earth (Les Soulèvements de la Terre) and the police occurred near Saint-Soline in western France, with police firing teargas to stop demonstrators, who were gathered to stop the construction of a water reservoir. Around 3,000 police officers and ten helicopters were mobilised.[64]
Protests against controversial water reservoirs had already been repressed months earlier. 1,700 gendarmes were present to oversee a demonstration of several thousand people in October 2022. The police used “tear gas grenades, stun grenades, explosive sting-ball grenades, and rubber bullets,” according to France's Human Rights League.[65] The organisers reported around sixty injuries among the demonstrators, including six who had to be hospitalised. One injured protester was even arrested in hospital (he underwent a medical scan handcuffed, while the police ignored medical confidentiality).[66]
The organisers from the Uprisings of the Earth criticised the government for attempting to criminalise their activities, which is illustrated by the rhetoric of the French minister of the interior Gerald Darmanin, who labelled the protesters as “eco-terrorists”. The fears of the movement materialised in January 2024, as the criminal court in Niort sentenced three protesters to prison (from six to twelve months) for “stealing a pipe”, “organising a prohibited demonstration”, and, in the case of some, “participating in a group with a view to committing violence against persons and damage to property”.[67] Six others were fined for participation in protests.[68]
The executive has gone so far that it decided to dissolve the Uprisings of the Earth association in June 2023, using powers that have been used before to ban far-right and Islamist groups.[69] In August 2023, the top French administrative court (the Council of State) suspended the government’s decision, as “the disbanding order would restrict the activists' freedom of assembly and said the interior ministry did not provide enough evidence to back up its claim that the group is inciting violence”..[70] The dissolving order was definitively annulled by a French court in November 2023, a clear failure of the government to criminalise the environmental movement.[71]
Italy
New “Eco-vandalism” Law to Introduce Harsh Penalties for Climate Protesters
In Italy, cultural monuments are at the centre of the clash between activists and the state authorities. Climate activists from the Italian branch of Last Generation (Ultima Generazione) have, in a campaign called Non Paghiamo il Fossile (We Don’t Pay for Fossils), targeted cultural symbols. The Palazzo Vecchio in Florence was sprayed with orange paint. The Fontana di Trevi in Rome is another example – activists poured black liquid into the water of the world-famous fountain, a symbolic act according to the protesters.[72]
In January 2023, five activists sprayed the building of the Italian Senate with easy-to-wash orange paint, using fire extinguishers, an “outrageous gesture” according to the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni.[73]
In January 2024, a controversial new law against “eco-vandalism” was approved by Parliament, imposing harsh fines of up to 40,000 euros to those who deface monuments and 60,000 euros for those who damage them, compared to the previous range of 1,500 to 15,000 euros.[74] These will be additional to already-existing fines and prison sentences for criminal damage.[75] According to Ultima Generazione, the new law presents an attack on freedom of expression and protest, penalising peaceful protesters more than those simply vandalising without any reason.[76] The strict new law is among a number of laws which were labelled as “weapons of mass distraction” from more urgent issues such as the energy crisis.[77] As Gabriella Abbate from Ultima Generazione states, “accusing activists of vandalism is much easier than implementing renewable energy policies”.[78]
The first charges were issued against three young activists in March 2024, when a Rome court imposed three suspended sentences of eight months in prison for spraying the Senate in 2023. According to Last Generation, sentences are suspended on condition of paying 60,000 euros for damages. “The intent wasn't to damage the building but to call attention to the responsibility of parliament to make laws on the environment for all citizens,” the defendant Davide Nente said.[79]
In Padua, a criminal investigation of 12 activists from Ultima Generazione was launched in April 2023, using an “anti-mafia law”, suspecting them of forming a criminal organisation.[80] The investigation is supported by the state unit DIGOS, which specialises in combatting terrorism, extremism, and organised crime.[81] The alleged crimes include interruption of public services by blocking traffic and passive resistance, obstruction of free movement, defacement of cultural property, and defacement of places. The prosecutor considered the Ultima Generazione group as a local cell of the global Extinction Rebellion movement, thus the allegation of a criminal conspiracy. These were followed by the search of the home of a young man who was identified as a leader of the group.[82]
“It’s an all-out war on what the government considers to be an emergency: not the coming climate catastrophe, but young people demanding urgent action and making demonstrative protests to try to draw attention to the issue,” notes the journalist Mario di Vita.[83]
Other countries
Thousands of Protesters Detained along with Attempts to Prosecute Climate Organisations and Imprisonment of Individuals
Austria
In Vienna, Austria, 143 people were detained in March 2023 protesting against the European Gas Conference. The police used pepper spray to break up the demonstration.[84] In November 2023, 57 members of the Austrian branch of Last Generation were arrested as a reaction to their strategy of “gluing” themselves to roads. The Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has stated that police forces are going to be equipped with heavy-duty equipment to combat protesters.[85]
Finland
In Finland, the police detained dozens of protesters (including minors) from Greenpeace and Elokapina, the Finnish branch of Extinction Rebellion, in Helsinki[86] and Lapland[87]. Although released after a night spent in custody, some are suspected of committing the crime of resisting authority.[88]
In 2021, a prosecutor accused Elokapina and Elonvaalijat, a registered association supporting the movement, of criminal charges of fundraising irregularities, fraud, and public incitement to commit a crime.[89] Four individuals associated with the two organisations were also charged. On top of that, fundraising profits of 20,000 euros were confiscated.[90]
In spring 2024, the Helsinki court dismissed all the charges proposed by the prosecutor, claiming that “Elokapina's demonstrations are permitted by the constitution and cannot be considered illegal in their entirety, regardless of the fact that some demonstrators may violate laws.”[91] The court ordered that the financial resources confiscated in late 2021 should be returned to the association.
On the contrary, the legality of the police measures was questioned – one police officer was fined in June 2023 for the unjustifiable use of pepper spray during a climate protest in October 2022.[92]
Netherlands
In the Netherlands,[93] over 3,000 climate protesters were arrested in September 2023 while protesting against the fossil fuel subsidies of the Dutch government.[94] The climate activists were blocking a highway, and the crowd was dispersed using water cannons. A similar practice was already applied in May 2023 by the law enforcement authorities. In the aftermath, seven protesters were found guilty of sedition for calling on people to join protests.[95] Protests against subsidies and tax exemptions to companies linked to the fossil fuel industry continue. In April 2024, dozens of protesters, including the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, were detained after blocking a road near the provisional seat of the Dutch government.[96]
Already in 2022, a Dutch court sentenced two activists to two months in prison for a protest which involved gluing themselves to the “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” painting. The judge explained that she gave the two men a shorter sentence than suggested by the prosecutor, because “she did want to discourage future protests”.[97] The painting, however, was not damaged by the protest.
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[72] https://www.dw.com/en/europe-grapples-with-how-to-handle-last-generation-climate-protests/a-65754544
[73] https://www.barrons.com/news/climate-activists-in-italy-sentenced-to-jail-for-painting-senate-df4a8010
[74] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italy-approves-bigger-fines-eco-vandals-targeting-artworks-2024-01-18/
[75] https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/06/15/eco-vandals-where-do-protesters-face-the-harshest-punishments-in-europe
[76] https://ultima-generazione.com/comunicati/2024/01/22/mattarella-non-firmare-ddl-ecoproteste/
[77] https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/06/15/eco-vandals-where-do-protesters-face-the-harshest-punishments-in-europe
[78] https://civicus.org/index.php/media-resources/news/interviews/6402-italy-accusing-activists-of-vandalism-is-much-easier-than-implementing-renewable-energy-policies
[79] https://www.barrons.com/news/climate-activists-in-italy-sentenced-to-jail-for-painting-senate-df4a8010
[80] https://global.ilmanifesto.it/italys-emergency-response-not-to-climate-change-but-to-climate-protests/
[81] https://www.dw.com/en/europe-grapples-with-how-to-handle-last-generation-climate-protests/a-65754544
[82] https://global.ilmanifesto.it/italys-emergency-response-not-to-climate-change-but-to-climate-protests
[83] https://global.ilmanifesto.it/italys-emergency-response-not-to-climate-change-but-to-climate-protests/
[84] https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/03/28/vienna-protests-143-protestors-detained-at-demonstration-against-european-gas-conference
[85] https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/austrias-sticky-climate-activists-draw-ire-of-leaders-as-57-arrested/
[86] https://yle.fi/a/3-12660365
[87] https://yle.fi/a/74-20057099
[88] https://yle.fi/a/3-12652497
[89] https://yle.fi/a/3-12279340
[90] https://yle.fi/a/74-20082277
[91] https://yle.fi/a/74-20082277
[92] https://yle.fi/a/74-20037955
[93] https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2023/01/30/768-mensen-aangehouden-bij-klimaatprotest-op-de-a12-a4155670#/krant/2023/01/30/
[94] https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/09/11/dutch-police-fire-water-cannons-and-detain-thousands-of-protesters-in-fossil-fuel-roadbloc
[95] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/12/how-criminalisation-is-being-used-to-silence-climate-activists-across-the-world
[96] https://apnews.com/article/greta-thunberg-detained-climate-protest-netherlands-hague-a9d55070c5505b422f4c9201f16363d6
[97] https://www.euronews.com/2022/11/03/two-activists-charged-for-the-girl-with-the-pearl-earring-climate-protest
