Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire
Promoting human rights from Salisbury UK
October 2026
We are pleased to announce the publication of our video Because ... in which some participants of the vigils we have held every Saturday since the horrific events of October 7th and the aftermath, give their reasons for attending. This coming Saturday 17th, will be our 150th such vigil. We hope you will watch it and perhaps share it.
October 2026
The Joint Committee on Human Rights has called for a new AI Bill to address the scale and seriousness of threats posed to human rights by artificial intelligence systems. Local MP, Sir Desmond Swayne is on the Committee. It points out that existing UK laws that could apply to AI do so primarily at the point of deployment, leaving the responsibility on its users rather than its designers. Regulators lack the power to test and evaluate AI systems before they are released, or to prevent their release if they are considered to pose unacceptable risks. Model developers engage with the AI Security Institute on a voluntary basis and it has no statutory power.
In a fast moving world with technology moving at breakneck speed, the current legal framework that applies to AI is fragmented and difficult to navigate. It relies on harm-specific and sector-specific legislation leaving gaps in protection which fails to address preventable human rights risks.
The right of an individual to seek effective remedy against decisions made against them is endangered by the use of AI. Insufficient transparency concerning how AI systems are used in decision making and a lack of effective mechanisms to challenge those decisions threatens the rights of people in the UK, particularly those of already minoritised communities, including Black and Minority Ethnic people. The right to privacy is also under serious threat.
To address the global nature of AI harms it argues governments need to collaborate to identify risks and promote consistent standards and that the UK should continue to play a leading role in international AI summits and seek to be party to international declarations and agreements on AI safety. (Source – Joint Committee [accessed 7 October])
Much concern has been expressed about successive government’s introducing legislation to try and limit protests. Climate campaigns and activities by Palestinian support organisations have come in for increasing controls and abundant arrests. Egged on by the right media with its talk of ‘zealots’ and ‘fanatics’, successive home secretaries have awarded the police more and more powers to clamp down on them. We have fundamental rights of assembly and of free speech which underpin protests.
Recent home secretaries have all been women who would not have been able to be MPs, let alone a home secretary, had it not been for the concerted and violent actions of the suffragettes. Many of the improvements to life we somewhat take for granted are the result of campaigns or protest movements.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights under Lord David Alton is launching an enquiry to look at the Government’s approach to protest: “We want to understand if the expansion of police powers relating to protest has been proportionate or if they will have a chilling effect on the right to protest. We will also examine if the new laws are effective in protecting wider society from the potential negative consequences of disruptive protest.”
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal is today considering how to take forward two legal challenges concerning the Government’s reported attempt to weaken end-to-end encryption for Apple users. One challenge has been brought by Apple. The other has been brought by Liberty, Privacy International and two individuals. End-to-end encryption is an essential security tool. It protects our bank details, health information, private conversations and photos, ensuring that only the sender and recipient can access the data being shared.
Between February and July this year, the British Transport Police ran a six-month live facial recognition trial across some of London’s busiest transport hubs – without making a single arrest.
The aim of the scheme was to catch offenders and people breaching court orders. More than half a million faces were scanned. The trial cost more than £320,000 and took up almost 100 hours of police time. This resulted in one alert which turned out to be incorrect. Despite this, the British Transport Police announced last month that it will be extending the trial for another four months and expanding it into London Underground stations.
Facial recognition is an essential tool used by repressive regimes such as China to control their citizens.
These two technologies, combined with a series of home secretaries keen to limit freedoms and giving police more and more powers, are a serious threat to our rights. We need to be aware of this.
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October 2026
Amnesty has just produced this video about the right to protest and the threats to that right by successive governments and home Secretaries.
October 2026
Over 30 attended the 148th vigil on what turned out to be a damp evening.
The major news this week was the decision by the Green party at their annual conference to declare Zionism an ‘ethnonationalist project’ which has drawn predictable criticism from Israel. The Israeli foreign ministry said in a post on X on Sunday that the motion “constitutes a clear antisemitic text according to the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition, as it denies the Jewish people’s right to self-determination”.
The chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, described the motion as “poisonous antisemitism” and a “threat to British Jews and to Britain”. However, as we have pointed out previously, not all Jewish people in the UK agree with the rabbi.
It was also reported last week that there has been a rise in Jewish people in the UK feeling ’emotionally attached to Israel’. This follows a longitudinal survey carried out by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research of 2,500 individuals. It has risen 13 points since the start of the Gaza war. There is also a rise in those identifying themselves as Zionist.
Our attention has been drawn to the following two items concerning how children are treated in Israeli prisons. One by Save the Children and the other a video by Al Jazeera. There is a WARNING that the latter contains distressing material.
Photo: courtesy of Peter Gloyns.
September 2026
For some months we have been reporting on the progress of rights in the UK particularly as successive governments have passed more and more legislation to try and reduce their effect. Only in the past few days have we seen groups of people, dressed in black with balaclavas or face coverings, massing by the docks in Portsmouth and Dover yet no arrests were made. This contrasts with the hundreds of arrests made of people – without face masks or behaving in a threatening manner – who have been arrested on terrorist charges. They were promoting the cause of Palestinians which was embarrassing for the government in view, until this week, of its support for the Israeli government.
This right, protected by Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, helps safeguard our relationships and family connections. However the Immigration and Asylum Bill, passed in the Commons and now in the committee stage, seeks to narrow how people’s family life is recognised in immigration and asylum cases, wanting to limit it to a “core cohabiting family”. Other family relationships would have to demonstrate dependency beyond normal emotional ties. Factors such as financial dependence, emotional support, or concern for a relative living in a country affected by war would not individually be enough to establish dependency.
These changes could have serious consequences for people seeking asylum, migrants and their families including those already resident in the UK. They also raise a wider concern for all of us, since human rights protections are universal safeguards. They do not become conditional when issues are complex or politically contested.
The government is reportedly again seeking access to highly encrypted personal data belonging to British users of Apple, having backed down last year in the face of political pressure from the US. Liberty and Privacy International are challenging the government’s power to use secretive ‘technical capability notices’ (TCNs) to unlock encrypted data of individuals.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has confirmed it will hear Liberty, Privacy International and two individuals’ challenge to the legality of the Home Secretary’s decision to use her powers to secretly force Apple to allegedly give the UK Government access to users’ secured data stored on iCloud. The challenge will also cover the legality of the Government issuing these types of notices at all.
On the subject of privacy and the security of our information, there is growing concern at the inroads another American company. Palantir, is making into our political and social life. They have contracts with the NHS, the military and the police and the concerns are about how safe is the data they are collecting.
There will be an International Day of Action on October 1st and locally, will take place between 12:00 and 14:00 in Southampton at Frobisher House which is right by the station. Participants will include NHS workers and patients, in protest against the wide ranging contracts Palantir has succeeded in obtaining in the health services as well as the military. The resistance is planned across the Americas, Europe and Britain. The software company is connected to Trumps’s discredited ICE and to Israeli surveillance and aggression in Gaza and is considered an unsafe repository for UK citizens data and government information. (See June report.)
It is part of a general increase in concern about more and more American companies controlling nearly all aspects of our social life with almost no controls over their activities.
The tragic case of the Cambridge professor Jason Arday, whose suicide followed prolonged harassment by the press and fellow academics about his academic credentials, is being cited as evidence that black public figures are subject to greater scrutiny than their white peers. An enquiry is being called for.
As we have mentioned above, a convergence last weekend (3rd, 4th) of 400 far right anti-immigration protesters in balaclavas in Dover followed the next day by 200 in Portsmouth, who gridlocked roads, used violence against police officers and threats against volunteers of the RNLI who had just escorted a boat full of immigrants arriving in uncontrolled crossings. It has raised questions about police unpreparedness for organised protest, about the level of anti-immigrant violence but also about the wearing of face masks.
The controversial Crime and Policing Bill of 2026 criminalises the act of wearing or otherwise using an item (for instance a face covering) that conceals a person’s identity when in an area that the police have designated. “A ‘designation’ can only be made in relation to an area when the police reasonably believe that a protest may or is taking place in that area, the protest is likely to involve or has involved the commission of offences and that a designation would prevent or control the commission of offences.”
Charities such as Amnesty and Liberty have previously argued that the measure in the Crime and Policing Bill would prejudice those who need to mask for justifiable health, religious or political safety reasons while engaging in peaceful protest. Masking in order to conceal criminal identity is clearly a different motive but it is possible that these deliberately intimidating demonstrations may make it harder for police to apply discrimination in cases of peaceful and legitimate masked protesters.
Responding to the road block and disruption at the Port of Dover by the group ‘Patriot Platform‘, Kerry Moscogiuri, CEO at Amnesty International UK said:
“The images from the port of Dover today are truly shocking. We are seeing a sickening increase in racist violence, threats and intimidation targeting communities and stopping families going about their day to day lives. The overwhelming majority of us detest violence and racism, and we need to see political leaders show clear moral leadership, challenge racist narratives and stand firmly alongside those who are being targeted.”
Today (10th) a group of men assembled outside a hotel in Southampton (Cosham) having seen a coach arrive thinking (it is thought) they were asylum seekers. They were in fact members of the Pakistan cricket team. The tone of the reporting was that there was no problem and the police made no arrests. But it demonstrated that rumours spread by social media led to an assembly of mostly men at least one of whom entered the hotel. What if they had been asylum seekers … ? [Source: BBC]
Whether the recent and very welcome reset of the Labour government’s attitude to Israel’s illegal settlements will have any mitigating effect on the thousands of protesters awaiting trial on terrorism charges remains to be seen.
The determination of a terrorist connection has been made recently and solely in Palestine Action cases where for instance Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion protesters were simply charged with criminal damage. The Counter-Terrorism Act, extended in 2021, allows a judge alone to decide the nature of the sentence with no consideration by the jury during the trial. Even Rajiv Menon KC, the defence barrister of one of the Filton Four, was charged with contempt of court for reminding the jury that they had the right to acquit on conscience, making him the first defence attorney in Britain to be prosecuted over statements in a closing speech.
Amnesty’s Human Rights in the Collective (August Snapshot) looks at the inconsistency of charges of a ‘terrorism connection’ in several instances of protest where damage to property has occurred. It concludes that it is not hard to relate the UK government’s prosecution of Palestine Action (July 2025) to personal pressure from Trump on Starmer following the damage done by protesters spraying ‘Gaza is not for sale’ across his Scottish golf course (March 2025). The group is now designated as global terrorists by the US Government.
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August 2026
Over the past few days (12th & 13th August) there has been a number of reports on BBC radio and TV and on Channel 4 concerning the latest violent actions by settlers in the village of Qusra on the West Bank. Palestinian families have been attacked by large groups of settlers and some have been besieged in their homes. The Israeli army is on the scene but is unable or unwilling to do more than make ineffectual efforts to curb the violence. There is footage of homes being trashed by the settlers.
In one way, this is not unusual. Settler violence against Palestinians has been a feature of the past few years with the IDF and Israel police doing nothing to stop it. But something changed with this attack. Firstly, it has received extensive coverage as noted with packages of 10 or 15 minutes devoted to the violence. More significantly, Mike Huckabee described the actions as ‘a horrific act of terror’ and those perpetrators as ‘Israeli terrorists’. Huckabee is the US Ambassador and a staunch supporter of Israel. The question is therefore: is there a change in the US attitude to Israel? Will the carte blanche support continue?
The Pew Research Center has produced evidence which seems to record a shift in opinion. They and other commentators suggest that 60% of Americans have a less favourable view of Israel now compared with previously. Among young people especially, there are strong negative views about Netanyahu. There is a divide in the opinion with the young having negative views and older people maintaining their loyalty.
The Institute for Global Affairs suggest that more Americans are seeing Israel as a liability. Many want the flow of arms to be reduced or constrained. American help for Israel has been open ended and has amounted to around $300bn to date. Increasingly, they don’t see Israel as ‘worth a war’.
For UK people, a major factor has been the destruction and killings which have taken place in Gaza. For Americans, it has been Iran and the feeling that the US was embroiled in an expensive project at the behest of Israel. Violence on the West Bank has not gone down well. Americans are seeing the effects in the price of gas (petrol) and other commodities because of the blockade of the Straight of Hormuz. There is a view that Israel is no longer seen as a ‘pioneer democracy’ but more of an ‘oppressive state’.
It is claimed that that the powerful AIPAC organisation – one of the most powerful in the States – has a ‘stranglehold’ over Congress. They have significant contacts and are known to give support to politicians early in their careers. As in the UK, members are taken on carefully curated tours of Israel. They spent $100m to try and influence recent elections.
Despite the spending and efforts to control the debate and neutralise critics, Americans can see the results on their screens which no amount of sanitising can hide. In the Senate the numbers of Senators calling for restrictions on arms being sent to Israel is increasing.
The biggest group of supporters is from American Evangelicals who see that part of the world in Biblical terms. They see it also in terms of the second coming. They are a key part of the electorate and are very influential.
A problem however with pointing at AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) is that it casts Israel, and more particularly Jews, as ‘having control’, a sensitive issue. This simply adds to the anti-Semitic claims made by Israel about any or all people who criticise them. It has an effect on critics.
Is American opinion going to change and will that bring about a re-calibration of their support to Israel? Some observers think it is a while off yet. Although younger Americans are no longer uncritical supporters, their influence is not yet great but it is growing. That Mike Huckabee spoke out in such terms is significant, not just the words themselves but that he felt able to utter them. All in all, the Israeli government is likely to be concerned at the changing mood towards them.
We must hope that a change will happen for the sake of the thousands who suffer in Gaza and the instability in Lebanon. The ceaseless violence will not ultimately help Israel. To cede control to thugs going out and terrorising Palestinians while your army and police stand by is no way for a civilised state to behave. The settlers know they have support for their actions from the highest level of government.
Sources: Channel 4 News (and a podcast); Pew Research Center; Al Jazeera; BBC; Christian Science Monitor; Institute for Global Affairs; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
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August 2026
Bringing back media and governmental attention on the Uyghurs is an essential step in ensuring that the current crisis is not simply ignored and forgotten. But these actions are only as strong as the wider support from the population. The more people know, care, and act for the Uyghurs, the stronger the influence we can have will be. That is why we are asking you today to simply talk to someone you know – a friend, a neighbour, or a colleague for example – about the Uyghur crisis.
Earlier posts will give you a flavour of the issues, the cruelty and repression these people are experiencing so we hope that with the information we have shared this far you will feel empowered to discuss the issue if in simple terms.
Nobody has all the answers to all the questions that may be asked, but creating that spark of curiosity within someone, who may learn more on their own, is so important and powerful. A simple conversation can make all the difference. You may get a response that it has little to do with us. It is sad and terrible that these things are happening but what can we do? Some points to consider:
Although the Uyghurs may seem a long, long way away, they are but the latest victims of China’s relentless desire for power and commercial domination. The effects of this will increasingly be felt in the UK. Regrettably, it does not get the attention it deserves and governments are keen to pursue trade interests. China is said to be sensitive to criticism and claims that human rights and other matters are raised behind the scenes are to be questioned. They certainly had little or no effect in Hong Kong.
So please mention the Uyghurs to your friends and add that China is becoming ever more important in our lives and it is beginning to affect all of us.
July 2026
UPDATE: Journalists attending the Fair from Declassified and Byline Times faced threats from the personnel on the Elbit Stand and other Israeli weapons stands. We are grateful for Salisbury Concern for Israel Palestine for bringing this link to our attention.
The UK is an enthusiastic supporter of the arms trade, organising a fair at Farnborough ever other year in Hampshire. A thousand firms will attend and the ‘strategic sponsor’ is Barclays. It is curious to note in passing that the bank was founded by two Quakers and their early history was supporting Quaker businesses in the New World. Now they are supporting weapons firms. One of their values is ‘[being] passionate about leaving things better than we found them‘. One wonders what someone who has had a weapon dropped on them or a limb blown off feels about this value?
The firms themselves supply weapons to a range of conflicts around the world including the genocide in Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria. Some of UK weapons find their way to Sudan via the UAE one of our largest customers. Our old friends Elbit Systems are in evidence as well as Rafael, Israel’s largest missile maker.
The fair depends crucially on British government support which includes a dedicated arms sales unit in government, organisation of the fair, providing insurance cover in case firms do not get paid and finally, ready access to ministers and civil servants through what is called the ‘revolving door’. This is the highly dubious process by which ex ministers, former civil servants and ex military officers secure lucrative consultancy work or directorships with the firms to help lobby for their activities.
The insurance is provided by Exports Credit Guarantees and the amount may surprise readers. A total of 20 countries have defaulted on payments: some you might expect like Iraq, Cuba and Serbia because of conflicts, but others include Pakistan, Egypt and Argentina. The total is just under £3 trillion which is added to the national debt. It is worth pondering this for a moment because one of the hotly disputed political debates at present is over the welfare bill and some politicians and pundits are arguing for it to be cut to enable tax cuts. The quite staggering level of funding support for arms companies is never mentioned by these same politicians. Three trillion is £3,000,000,000,000. This figure may be an underestimate because the report makes clear some data has been lost.
Discovering quite what is being exported is not easy. The government likes to claim it has a robust arms sales policy but the facts seem to suggest otherwise. One has only to look at the countries to which we sell to see that ‘robust’ is not a word one would use. It issues what are called Standard Individual Export Licences [SIEL] of which there were 10,400 in 2025. The problem is approximately half of sales are under ‘open license’ making the reporting unreliable.
Ministers cannot always be trusted. David Lammy MP said in parliament that sales to Israel were being reduced once the destruction of Gaza became too great to ignore. Later analysis of Israel’s import data showed sales by the UK had in fact increased.
When we speak of arms sales, the photographs often show fighter jets, missile systems and other items of large scale military kit. We must not overlook that it is the millions of small weapons such as rifles, machine guns, grenades and so forth which cause so much damage to ordinary people. It is these weapons which kill and maim especially women and children.
Our continued support for the likes of Elbit Systems who make the drones which have killed many and made the lives of the people of Gaza such a misery, is shaming. Huge efforts have been made to stamp down on protests and hundreds of protestors have been arrested and gaoled.
There will be much glad-handing at Farnborough and no doubt a minister will speak about the contribution to our economy and jobs created. But we cannot escape the plain fact that this is an industry who’s products are designed to kill people. It could be argued that we need to defend ourselves and our partners in NATO for example. While that may be true, firms are busy supplying weapons to unstable, undemocratic and often brutal regimes who are using them to inflict misery on millions of people. Few questions are asked and the notion of a ‘robust regime’ is for the birds. The revolving door is alive and well – a process so steeped in corruption it is astonishing it has survived so long.
Sources: CAAT, SIPRI (Sweden), MoD, Barclays Bank, Salisbury CND
Picture: Dorset Eye
July 2026
Rakefet Prison is not well known among the British public and has not appeared in many news broadcasts. It is an underground prison situated not far from Tel Aviv. It was designed to hold dangerous Israeli prisoners but was closed on humanitarian grounds. Prisoners were kept underground never seeing sunlight.
It was reopened by Ben Gvir to house Palestinians with 7 times the numbers it was designed for. The appalling conditions are described in considerable and gruesome detail in a report by the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem. Called ‘Welcome to Hell’ it describes the continuous beatings – sometimes leading to death – the poor food, lack of medical attention, atrocious conditions with men packed into airless underground cells in suffocating conditions. Dogs are used to intimidate them. ‘Trophy’ footage was posted by an IDF soldier which has caused outrage around the world. It reveals a blindfolded Palestinian prisoner secured to a pole.
Deaths are not investigated and bodies are buried in numbered graves. There are around 3,500 held elsewhere in ‘administrative detention’ including 200 children. No charges are brought. B’Tselem explains what this means:
“In administrative detention, a person is held without trial without having committed an offense, on the grounds that he or she plans to break the law in the future. As this measure is supposed to be preventive, it has no time limit. The person is detained without legal proceedings, by order of the regional military commander, based on classified evidence that is not revealed to them. This leaves the detainees helpless – facing unknown allegations with no way to disprove them, not knowing when they will be released, and without being charged, tried or convicted”. [B’Tselem]
Considerable attention was paid to the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on October 7th with frequent media reports on the numbers held, negotiations for their release and footage of their release when they happened.
By contrast, of those held underground in Rakefet or elsewhere in detention, there has been almost no media coverage. Indeed, few will have heard of Rakefet. Israel is behaving in the manner of some barbaric state with no human rights laws or meaningful legal system. And it doing so in almost complete media silence. It continues to receive uncritical support from the Labour government, up until now at least as we await what the new prime minister will do. The House of Commons is packed with around 200 ‘friends of Israel’ parliamentarians who seemingly are unconcerned at the beatings, deaths, torture and the barbaric prison conditions in this prison.
Image shows a dog entering a cell.
The RAF flew hundreds of missions over Gaza as part of the UK’s support for the Israeli government. The numbers vary but it was at least 600 according to various reports.
Most people in Britain who followed the news would have known the tally of hostages held and those released after the horrific October 7th massacre. There was considerable coverage and many interviews of family members for example. It received an appropriate level of media attention in view of the tragic events which took place after the horrific attack.
One person held in Rakefet is Dr Hassan Abu Safiya. He has been held in the prison since December 2024. He was seized allegedly for being a member of Hamas but since Hamas runs the health authority in Gaza this is meaningless. A lawyer visiting him says he is almost unrecognisable ‘suffering severe injuries to his head, eyes and neck while struggling to breathe in the Rakefet interrogation facility’.
Image of the Minister of National Security Mr Ben Gvir who allegedly shouted abuse at those held in Rakefet.
The UN Special Rapporteur criticised the BBC for presenting unproven Israeli military claims about him. This follows the journalist Peter Oborne’s criticism of the BBC’s coverage (and other media) in his book Complicit as disgraceful.
Thus we have two worlds where the horrific attack by Hamas is given massive coverage including false claims of beheading by several of our leading newspapers, whereas the torture, underground confinement without trials, and murder of Palestinians is met with near total silence by that same media. And 200 of our MPs are members and supporters of these dreadful actions including the MP for Salisbury Mr John Glen. We can only hope that the new prime minister Mr Andy Burnham will end Britain’s craven and shameful support given to this dreadful regime and the genocide it has unleashed.
ADDED 15 JULY. Rape of flotilla women in Israeli prison alleged.
Criticising Israel is not anti-Semitic.
Sources include: Ground News, Guardian, Haaretz, B’Tselem, IDF photos,
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July 2026
For many years, Amnesty concerned itself with human rights overseas. There was an own country rule. There was a tinge of arrogance in that based as it was on the assumption that rights in the UK were perfectly all right – after all we had the Magna Carta, a democracy and parliament to look after us – it was people overseas that needed the help. Well they still do but here in the UK, there has been a steady stream of legislation with the intention of inhibiting protests. Governments do not like them and act after act has appeared both from Conservative and Labour governments and Home Secretaries, seeking to obstruct and make protests more and more difficult. Which is why we have initiated these posts.
In this 250th year of America Independence, and as we have many (very welcome) readers from over the pond, it is worth noting that the UK does not have a constitution nor the equivalent of the first amendment rights to free speech enjoyed by US citizens. Which is why the slow drift into authoritarianism by our government is so troubling. We have tended to rely on the courts to protect our rights. As you can see in the first item below, that reliance is extremely uncertain.
Right to peaceful Assembly and Protest
The Supreme Court has controversially overturned the High Court ruling that declared the ban on Palestine Action to be unlawful. This means that the ban on Palestine Action is restored and charges stand against the 700 plus people being charged under the Terrorism Act. Tom Southerden, Amnesty’s legal programme director, said that it was fundamentally disproportionate to treat direct action protest as terrorism and claimed that the images of people from all walks of life, from nurses and pensioners to military veterans, being bundled into police vans for peacefully holding placards would be long remembered as a deeply shameful chapter in our history.
Subsequently, on 12 June the four Palestine Action activists known as ‘the Filton 4’ were told by Judge Mr Justice Johnson they would be sentenced as having a ‘terrorist connection’ following convictions for criminal damage arising out of their direct action at the Elbit Systems arms factory in Filton, Bristol. Criticisms of these verdicts have been widespread in the UK and the UN.
Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, concluded:
“The defendants in this case were sentenced as terrorists because prosecutors want to make an example of them and set a precedent for how direct action protesters could be treated in the future. Criminal damage has never been treated as terrorism within the UK justice system before and it is dangerous to treat them as the same thing. We should all be worried about what this means for other individuals taking direct action in protest of a genocide or any other issue. The right to protest is one of the most effective tools we have to hold our leaders to account and today is another step in the ongoing crackdown in this country against it. The use of terrorism laws against direct action protesters must end”
Equality and Human Rights Commission Transgender guidance
A total of 135 MPs, 69 of them from Labour, have signed a Commons motion calling for the code of practice on transgender people, recently drafted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, to be blocked, primarily because of worries about its impact on transgender people and also the possibility of legal challenges. It’s unlikely that the guidance will be stopped, as the government has declined to allow a vote, but there is pressure on ministers to listen, and possibly to consider new legislation to resolve the problem. The 40-day period for the code to be laid before parliament ends early next month, after which it will become law.
Right to privacy/freedom of information
The High Court has rejected attempts by Nigel Farage’s Reform party to dismiss the challenge from the Good Law Project that they must be more transparent in how they hold data of members of the public. Before the general election, Good Law Project supporters demanded that political parties reveal how personal data is held and used, as the law requires them to do. Notably most requests to Farage’s Reform party received no response.
It is legitimate for political parties to combine the electoral roll with other data they’ve captured to target people with tailored ads and messages. This itself raises questions in a democracy, but is particularly concerning when micro-targeting is done by a far-right party like Reform which currently is experiencing issues over transparency especially over their funding. The Good Law Project will now sue Reform.
Oversight for Police AI
Liberty is calling on the government to establish oversight for the increasing use of AI by police. They demand full transparency in response to public concern; binding rules on what data can be fed into police systems; independent testing and continuous monitoring; accountability to a designated human of decisions resulting from AI; training of officers in its use, limitations and their responsibilities; clear recording and auditing of how decisions are reached; and an independent regulator to enforce these standards.
Workplace rights
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published new commissioned research on harassment in the workplace. The rapid evidence review shows how organisations can prevent problematic behaviours, fulfilling the legal obligations introduced by the Worker Protection Act.
The research highlights the importance of reporting mechanisms but warns that organisations should not rely on the number of harassment reports to determine if they have a problem. Low harassment reporting rates they say may indicate a workplace in which employees feel unable to report, rather than the absence of harassment.
The study also suggests that when employers are purely motivated by reputation management, policies often involve ineffective ‘box-ticking’ interventions which, in isolation, fail to prevent harassment or protect their employees. It concludes that to be effective, interventions need to be implemented consistently, reviewed regularly and involve multiple approaches to increase awareness of harassment through training and communication.
Transfer of jurisdiction under scrutiny
UK police forces have faced severe criticism for ceding jurisdiction to the US military for off-duty crimes committed by their personnel on British soil, preventing such cases from ever reaching the Crown Prosecution Service
Following the high profile challenge launched by the mother of Harry Dunn, in which only after a long legal battle the CPS succeeded in the prosecution of the American driver responsible for his death, a second instance of a failure of the British Government to protect its citizens has recently come to light. Sarah Steele, who was strangled by an American pilot, failed to have her case heard in a British court when the US military transferred the hearing and judgement to their own court. The defendant was subsequently expelled from the military but found guilty of only one of two charges. Justice Secretary David Lammy undertook to raise the case directly with the US government.
Terrorism bill
We shall be saying more about this bill and its worrying aspects in a future post.
