Court Decisions Impacting Protests and Gender Rights in the UK

Significant number of things happened this month

May 2025

There were a number of interesting events on the human rights front in the UK this month including the Court of Appeal judgement discussed below. There has been a steady ‘nibbling away’ of rights by successive governments which is why we have started this series of reports of which this is the second and why the judgement is good news.

Right to Protest

This month the Court of Appeal has upheld an earlier ruling of the High Court from May 2024 that then Home Secretary Suella Braverman did not have the power to create a new law that lowered the threshold of when the police can impose conditions on protests from anything that caused ‘serious disruption’ to anything that was deemed as causing ‘more than minor’ disruption. They said that “the term “serious” inherently connotes a high threshold … (and) cannot reasonably encompass anything that is merely ‘more than minor’”.

This was the first time a government had sought to make changes through so-called ‘Henry VIII powers’ of secondary legislation to a law which had been democratically rejected by Parliament when introduced in primary legislation.

Hundreds of protesters have been arrested under these measures since they were created, including the

climate activist Greta Thunberg (pictured: MusikExpress) who was acquitted of all charges in a hearing in February 2024.

Liberty has called for the regulations to be quashed immediately (as per the initial ruling from the High Court, whose decision to scrap them was put on hold until the conclusion of the appeal) and has called for all arrests and prosecutions under the legislation to now be urgently reviewed, alongside a comprehensive review into all protest laws that have been passed in recent years.

The Court will decide in the coming weeks if the legislation is to be quashed.

Gender Recognition Ruling

Five judges from the UK Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 dealt with biological sex at birth and did not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates.

In a significant defeat for the Scottish government, their decision will mean that transgender women can no longer sit on public boards in places set aside for women and it will have far reaching implications for access to protected spaces and services such as the armed service, hospitals, women-only charities and changing rooms and access to sport.

Lord Hodge told the court the Equality Act (EA) was very clear that its provisions dealt with biological sex at birth, and not with a person’s acquired gender, regardless of whether they held a gender recognition certificate. In a verbal summary of the decision, he said: “Interpreting sex as certificated sex would cut across the definitions of man and woman in the EA and thus the protected characteristic of sex in an incoherent way.” He stressed that the ruling does not change the protection trans people are afforded under the protected characteristic of ‘gender reassignment’ under the Equality Act. Amnesty has called the decision ‘disappointing’.

Humanist Rights

Two couples are taking the government to court over its failure to legalise humanist marriage in Wales and England, five years after a ruling that the lack of recognition was discriminatory. Humanist marriages are legal in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and elsewhere in the world including New Zealand, Canada and Australia. In Scotland in 2022 there were 9,140 humanist wedding ceremonies compared with 8,072 based on faiths or other beliefs.

Activists Detained

Non-violent activists Roger Hallam and Dr Patrick Hart are being refused their right to a Home Detention Curfew. Days before their scheduled release from prison in March Dr Hart was told that there was ‘no suitable accommodation’ and Hallam that the media’s interest in his case meant that he was deemed unsuitable for HDC (which actually states that non-violent prisoners can only be denied release ‘in exceptional circumstances’). New release dates are respectively June and possibly August. There will be an appeal.

The Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act of 2019

This was invoked by police at St Pancras rail station for detaining a Palestinian-British Christian academic and his 8-year-old son on their return from Paris on Good Friday. Professor Makram Khoury-Machool (pictured: BBC Arabic Service) is a Palestinian-British Christian academic who has lived in the UK since 1999 and taught in Cambridge since 2004. He is the founder of the Cambridge Centre for Palestine Studies whose board members and patrons include Dr Rowan Williams, Baroness Helena Kennedy, Baroness Sally Morgan, Lord Chris Smith, HE Clare Short, Baroness Warsi and Lord David Steel.

He and his son were held over 4 hours until after midnight, were given no food while the police took his fingerprints, DNA samples, searched his personal belongings and confiscated his laptop and mobile phone using the threat of force. Seven days later, the devices were returned but without his SIM card. He was subjected to an intimate body search, and his son was left traumatised by the experience. This is perhaps the first time a child as young as eight has been detained in the UK under the 2019 Act; his treatment may breach the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to which the UK is a signatory.

Economic, Social Cultural Rights

Amnesty reports that in the UK there is no legislatively defined universal social protection floor such as the one recommended by the UN’s International Labour Organisation: this is left to the discretion of the state and is inconsistent across Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The changes proposed by the Pathways to Work Green Paper 2025 will require new legislation allowing the secretary of state to implement proposed cuts to social security rates for disability and incapacity schemes, and removing some of the legislative protections which are in place to protect against political whims.

If implemented, Amnesty considers the extensive reforms proposed would be a deliberately discriminatory, disproportionate and retrogressive violation of human rights; The UK’s social security system does not legally guarantee essential social security payments that ensure access to basic needs such as healthcare, housing, food and education and that social security freezes, caps, and deductions, removal of the spare room subsidy (bedroom tax) and two-child limit have deepened poverty and disproportionately harmed children, the disabled and low-income families. Despite increased social security spending, poverty rates remain unacceptably high.

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May 8, 2025 0

Arms trade news

Grim reading in Campaign Against the Arms Trade’s latest newsletter

May 2025

The CAAT Newsletter (Spring 2025, Issue 272) has details of what’s happening in the world of arms sales a world in which the UK is a big player. Our previous post discussed the continuing sale of arms to Israel which is subject to an Appeal Court hearing starting on 13th. Also we mentioned the role of the RAF in carrying out hundreds of flights over Gaza and quite what is being done with the information gleaned is not revealed.

Arms sales are important for several reasons. Weapons have an enormous capacity to do great harm in the wrong hands. Governments need to exert great control over licensing to ensure that arms do not fall into such hands. British governments are frequently to be heard claiming it exercises ‘robust’ controls. It is doubtful that this is the case and CAAT have often noted the considerable use of open licences which means little effective control exists.

The current Labour government has a policy of growth which seems to dominate thinking. As the court case will reveal, and papers have already revealed, this seems to trump considerations of human rights. CAAT News has the following examples:

The Defence Secretary has held meetings with counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Turkey to discuss opportunities for expanding military cooperation which is likely to involve arms sales. Both countries have woeful human rights records. Saudi has a full array of violations including public executions, use of torture, restrictions on women’s rights and repression of any opposition or free speech. Turkey has carried out baseless prosecutions against journalists, human rights defenders and opposition leaders, thousands of whom are in gaol.
Eurofighter sales – which the UK co-produces – are planned for Qatar and Turkey. The latter is involved in bombing Kurdish groups in its own country and Iraq. Qatar is another repressive Gulf state and is highly corrupt.
We have noted before the question of the Revolving Door where politicians, ministers, senior civil servants and military personnel leave their posts and head off for lucrative appointments/directorships/consultancies with arms firms. It is an open invitation for corruption and the ACOBA system seems powerless to stop it. The Aerospace, Defence and Security Group, (ADS) the trade body for the defence industry representing all of the major arms makers, holds an annual dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel in which, in the words of CAAT ‘The dinner’s purpose is to introduce them to one another and allow them to schmooze and entertain their powerful friends from Parliament and the Civil Service‘ … These kinds of dinners are where relationships are formed and built and where the next round of arms deals are made, over fine food and wines.’
And it doesn’t end there. The Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) resumes in September at the ExCel Centre in London. This may be the largest such exhibition in the world. It is popular because the UK government invites representatives from a wide range of countries including those with appalling human rights records, some even on its own watch list. The thousands of attendees will be met by ‘a cast of compliant senior civil servants and politicians on hand to make sure things run smoothly’ (CAAT).
… or even there because the Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre is to host Security and Policing run by the Home Office. Again, a range of countries with dreadful human rights are cordially invited to view the latest in surveillance, tear gas and ammunition. Journalists are banned. Britain seems happy to be host to regimes who use this equipment to repress and intimidate oppositions, journalists or human rights people.

Growth or rights?

The government seems keen to actively support these activities and to do all it can to promote arms and surveillance equipment to repressive regimes. It does this while piously claiming that:

This Government is fully committed to the protection of human rights both at home and abroad. We are committed to the international human rights framework and the important role that multilateral organisations like the Council of Europe play in upholding it. (Ministry of Justice, November 2024, ref: CP 1192)

It is hard to square the multi-level activities to promote arms sales and in the process currying favour with some of the world’s worst regimes, with their stated desire to be upholders of human rights and the wellbeing of those at the end of it all. While politicians, civil servants, military brass and ministers ‘schmooze’ with the arms manufacturers in expensive London hotels, it may be hard for them to empathise with those who have been bombed, starved, driven from their homes or incarcerated, tortured or executed for no reason. All facilitated by the weapons and equipment they so admire whilst quaffing the Bollinger. Is it growth above all else?

Sources include: CAAT, The Canary, Amnesty

May 4, 2025 1

Human Rights report

New report the group is launching

April 2025

Amnesty began by focusing on human rights in other countries. This was probably based on the belief that rights in the UK were secure, we had after all, the Magna Carta, a justice system and things like torture ended several centuries ago. The UK was a key player in introducing the Universal Declaration in 1948. With the arrival of the European Court, it soon became clear that not everything in the UK human rights garden was rosy. The Birmingham Six case was a classic example of a failure to treat the six defendants fairly. The police fabricated evidence, the six were badly beaten in custody, the courts and judges manifestly failed, the forensic evidence was a nonsense. Eventually they were released – not because the justice system worked to correct its mistakes – but because of the dogged work of Chris Mullins, an MP and journalist.

In the recent decade and a half, there has been a long-lasting campaign, largely led by some newspaper groups, to denigrate the Human Rights Act and to claim that it is a ‘terrorist’s charter’ and allows serious criminals to escape justice because of allegedly spurious arguments provided by their human rights. This has been echoed by the Conservative party who have variously claimed to want to abolish or reform the act. We can remember the nonsense claim by Theresa May that a Chilean man could not be deported because of his cat.

Human rights therefore are by no means secure in the UK. Legislation introduced by the last Conservative government limiting the right to protest and increasing police powers, together with the remorseless increase in the use of surveillance technology, shows no sign of being annulled by the current Labour government.

Hence we feel the need to focus on our rights here in the UK and the slow but steady attempts to limit or curtail them.

Funding for victims of trafficking

The High Court has declared that denial of Exceptional Case Funding to four victims of trafficking to access legal advice to prepare an application for criminal injuries compensation breached their rights under Article 6 ECHR.

Military Misogyny

A coroner has concluded that the UK government may have breached a young soldier’s right to life by failing to protect Jaysley Beck from a sexual assault by a more senior colleague and from sustained unwelcome sexual attention from her line manager.

Deaths in custody

More than 100 relatives of people who have died after contact with the police in the UK since 1971 have joined plans for a class action lawsuit in pursuit of compensation and justice. At the People’s Tribunal on Police Killings, bereaved families presented evidence to a panel of international experts on how their relatives died and the long-term impact this has had on them. The findings and conclusions of the event will form the basis of a first-of-its-kind legal action directed at police officers, police chiefs and government departments involved in the deaths.

Economic, Social, Cultural Rights

Claims by Amnesty and Human Rights Watch state that the UK faces a cost-of-living crisis which has yet to be addressed by policies that safeguard the economic, social and cultural rights of people from low-income households, particularly their rights to food, housing and social security.

Freedom of Expression

Following last year’s criticism of the UK by the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, the High Court concluded that anti-protest measures introduced in 2023 – allowing authorities to clamp down on any protests deemed ‘more than minor’ disruptions – unlawfully restricted protest. The Labour Government has yet to repeal these repressive laws and is choosing to continue the legal challenge against the High Court ruling brought by the previous government.

Environmental Protest Sentencing

Gaie Delap (pictured), retired teacher, Quaker and climate protester has finally finished her sentence.

Her detention was notoriously extended when prison authorities could not equip her with a curfew tag bracelet. She said: “I think around 80% of the women I met should not have been in prison. Help with problems such as mental health, addiction and housing would have been more useful.”

This week the Court announced its ruling to uphold most of the harsh sentences of the ‘Walney 16’, jailing the group for a combined total of 35 years (originally 41) for peaceful protest. Global Witness say that the UK is at risk of becoming one of the world’s most repressive governments when it comes to policing climate protest, arresting campaigners at three times the global average. Lawyers for the protesters, backed by campaign groups Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, argued that the sentences were disproportionate and violate the UK’s obligations under human rights law, including articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights and article 3(8) of the Aarhus Convention.

On 25 March prescriptive policing led to the arrest of six Youth Demand members as they met in a London Quaker House. The civil disobedience group has protested new oil expansion and UK arms to Israel. Quakers (not allied with the group) have protested at the police raid on their premises.

Open Justice

Apple is taking the unprecedented step of removing its highest level data security tool from customers in the UK, after the government demanded access to user data, citing powers given to it under the Investigatory Powers Act. After reluctantly pulling ADP from the UK, Apple has now launched legal proceedings against the government who argued it would damage national security if the nature of the legal action and the parties to it were made public. However a judge has sided with a coalition of civil liberties groups and news organisations – including the BBC – and ruled a legal row between the UK government and Apple over data privacy cannot be held in secret.

Sources: BBC News; The Guardian; Global Witness News; Doughty Street Chambers; Human Rights Watch; Amnesty.

April 10, 2025 0

Exeter Conference

March 2025

Members from groups in the South West gathered in Exeter last Saturday for an interesting day on human rights issues. All credit to the Exeter group who have organised this for several years now enabling us to meet other groups in the region. We held our usual photo opportunity in front of the fine Exeter Cathedral (almost as fine as Salisbury’s!), and this picture was to highlight the problems of being a woman in Afghanistan.

You can read a post on the issue of the UK’s support for cricket in Afghanistan particularly as women are not allowed to play it. There is a post on one of the speakers who discussed the current situation in Somalia.

March 24, 2025 0

Gaza: don’t say you don’t know

Vigil number 68

March 2025

The violence continues. Israel has ended the ceasefire and over a hundred have been killed in the recent bombing in Gaza. Encouraged by President Trump and his desire to see some kind of Riviera on the Mediterranean coast, the IDF has restarted its bombing campaign. There can be little pretence that peace and a two state solution is anywhere present in current thinking.

To criticise Israel is to court being called ‘antisemitic’ a kneejerk reaction which has been immensely powerful. Many publications are wary of inviting this slur. It is very encouraging therefore to read of criticisms coming from within Israel itself and in particular in the Haaretz newspaper. A recent article by its editor Aluf Benn, is testimony to this [registration may be needed].

The images on our screens are truly horrific. A landscape of demolished buildings; mountains of rubble; hoards of people moving from one ‘safe zone’ to the next; rows of corpses and parents clutching dead infants. The scale of the response, with Netanyahu promising even worse to come, is demonstrably a crime against humanity. All supported by the United States and now Donald Trump with vague notions of moving 2 million Palestinians out of the territory to some other country.

Britain continues to support Israel and the RAF are reported to be overflying Gaza a largely unreported fact. And of course we are still selling them arms. We are thus complicit in these terrible events.

The 68th Vigil was held yesterday in the Market Place in Salisbury with around 35 in attendance. We are grateful to Peter Gloyns for a moving video.

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March 23, 2025 0

The Amnesty tree

Salisbury group assembles to mark planting of its tree

March 2025

Last year (2024) marked the fifty years since the group was founded and here we are, still going strong if sadly the only group left in Wiltshire. We had the opportunity for a tree to be planted in honour of this anniversary and today (4 March) some of the local group assembled for a photograph in Victoria Park. We were delighted to welcome two surviving members who formed the group half a century ago.

The need to keep human rights issues on the agenda is needed now more than ever. It was perhaps the belief all those years ago that the need for a human rights group would slowly melt away in the wake of the post war ideal of the new world order following WWII. This has not been the case. Rights are being slowly chipped away at home as governments have not liked protest groups drawing attention to their climate and environment failings and continued arming of Israel for example. The previous government introduced several pieces of legislation reducing rights, increasing police powers and limiting access to justice. The new government shows little inclination to repeal them. Some MPs – including both our local ones – generally vote against human rights matters according to the They Work for You website.

Overseas – well, where to start. China continues to persecute the Uyghurs and western firms continue to buy cotton produced by effectively slave labour. War and destruction continues in Sudan and other parts of sub Sahara Africa. The situation in Burma continues with the military attacking people and villages of minority groups. We continue to sell them jet fuel to enable them to carry on. The terrible death toll continues in Gaza.

So the need to keep the spotlight on human rights is needed today as it was 50 years ago. Power, in whatever form, does not like giving it up and will go to great lengths to keep it for themselves and their supporters.

If you would like to join us you would be welcome. See a list of current and future events where you can come and make yourself known. We welcome people who want to pursue a particular human rights theme – more rights for women for example.

Photo: Salisbury Amnesty

Türkiye: Acquittal of Taner Kılıç

Equited after eight-year ordeal comes amid new wave of repression of rights defenders

February 2025

The dire human rights situation in Türkiye has largely dropped out of the news in recent years but repression of rights defenders, journalists and academics continues. The case of Taner Kılıç, who was finally acquitted today after a judicial process that has lasted almost 8 years, is a stark example of the Turkish authorities’ politically motivated attempts to criminalize human rights defenders, said Amnesty International. We first mentioned his arrest in a post on this site in 2019.

Taner Kılıç, a refugee rights lawyer and former Chair of Amnesty International’s Türkiye section, was arrested in June 2017 and detained in prison for more than 14 months. Despite a complete absence of any credible evidence, in July 2020, he was convicted of “membership of a terrorist organisation” and sentenced to more than six years in prison. The end of the almost eight year ordeal for Taner Kılıç comes amid a new wave of detentions in which rights defenders, journalists, political activists and others have been targeted.

His acquittal follows the Court of Cassation’s rejection of the prosecution’s appeal against its previous decision to overturn Taner’s baseless conviction.

“Today, as we mark the end of Taner’s agonizing ordeal, our feelings are bittersweet. The cruelty inflicted on Taner – the years stolen from him and his family – can never be forgotten. His tenacity and resilience, coupled with our determination to undo this injustice, demonstrates that when we come together, we can move mountains,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General who spoke with Taner by video call today.

“For me this nightmare that has gone on for almost eight years is finally over. My imprisonment for more than a year has caused great trauma to my family. This unfair trial was like a sword of Damocles hanging not just over me but over the head of the entire human rights community in Türkiye. While it was for the prosecution to prove my guilt, this case went on for years despite my repeatedly proving my innocence,” said Taner Kılıç.

“The ordeal has created huge uncertainty in my life. The only thing I was sure of throughout this process was that I was right and innocent, and the support from all over the world gave me strength. I thank each and every one who stood up for me.”

In May 2022, the European Court of Human Rights reaffirmed that the authorities in Türkiye did not have “any reasonable suspicion that Taner Kılıç had committed an offence” when they remanded him in pre-trial detention for over 14 months in 2017/18. It found that his imprisonment on terrorism-related charges was “directly linked to his activity as a human rights defender”. 

In November 2022, the Court of Cassation in Turkey ruled to overturn the conviction of Taner Kılıç on the grounds that the investigation was “incomplete”. The trial court agreed with the Court of Cassation ruling in June 2023, but the prosecutor appealed the decision, insisting that Taner Kılıç’s conviction should stand. With this latest and final decision, the Court of Cassation rejected the prosecution’s appeal, ending the ordeal for the human rights defender.

Courts used to silence critics

“Taner’s protracted prosecution is emblematic of how Turkish courts have been weaponized to silence critical voices and of the ongoing crackdown by Turkish authorities on rights and freedoms and those who defend them. The flagrant miscarriage of justice he was subjected to for so long is sadly just one of many. But we will take strength from Taner’s acquittal in our fight against the curtailing of human rights in Türkiye, and on behalf of those who refuse to be silenced by the authorities’ threats,” Agnès Callamard.

The acquittal comes amid a crackdown in which more than 1,600 people have reportedly been investigated for their alleged links to the Peoples’ Democratic Congress, a platform for civil society organizations and political parties. Last week, at least 50 people were detained in several provinces and 30 among them unlawfully remanded in prison on ‘terrorism’ related allegations after being questioned about their peaceful activities dating from more than a decade ago.

Background

Taner Kılıç is a founding member of Amnesty International Türkiye. Over the last 20 years, he has played a crucial role in defending human rights as part of the organization and the wider human rights community in Türkiye.  

We are grateful to Amnesty UK for the bulk of the text in this post.

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February 27, 2025 0

Perils of predictive policing

Amnesty publishes a report warning of the perils of predictive policing

February 2025

Many TV detective series have technology at their core as our heroes vigorously pursue the wrongdoers. CCTV cameras are scrutinised for movements of the criminals, DNA evidence is obtained and of course fingerprints are taken. The story lines of countless detective series feature forensic evidence as a key component of police detection. The series and stories are reassuring by displaying law enforcement officers using all the techniques – scientific and technological – to keep us all safe and lock up the bad guys. Using science and algorithms to enable police forces to predict crime must be a good idea surely?

It is not. The Amnesty report, and other research, explain in great detail the problems and what the risks are. One of the persistent biases in the justice system is racism and it would be worth reading the book The Science of Racism by Keon West (Picador, pub. 2025). The author takes the reader through copious peer reviewed research conducted over many years in different countries explaining the extent of racism. Examples include many cv studies (US: resume) where identical cv’s, but with different names which indicate the ethnicity of candidates, produces markedly different results. There are similar examples from the world of medicine and academia. Racism is endemic and persists. As Keon West acknowledges, a similar book could be written about how women are treated differently.

The Amnesty report notes that Black people are twice as likely to be arrested; three times as likely to be subject to force and 4 times as likely to be subject to stop and search as white people. With such bias in place, the risk is that predictive policing might simply perpetuate existing prejudice and bias. The concern partly centres around the use of skin colour, where people live and their socio-economic background all used as predictive tools.

People have a deep faith in technology. On a recent Any Answers? programme (on BBC Radio 4), a debate about the death penalty and the problem of mistakes, several people showed a touching faith in DNA in particular inferring that mistakes cannot happen. People are mesmerised by the white suited forensic officers on television giving a sense of science and certainly. Technology is only as good as the human systems which use it however. There have been many wrongful arrests and prison sentences of innocent people despite DNA, fingerprints, CCTV and all the rest. Mistakes are made. The worry is that predictive policing could enhance discrimination.

People who are profiled have no way of knowing that they have been. There is a need to publish details of what systems the police and others are using. The police are reluctant to do this the report notes. What is the legal basis for effectively labelling people because of their skin colour, where they live and their socio-economic status?

The police are keen on the idea and around 45 forces use it. The evidence for its effectiveness is doubtful. The risks are considerable.

February 25, 2025 1

Salisbury Journal piece

Journal acknowledges Vigils held in Salisbury

January 2025

The Salisbury Journal published a short piece describing the Vigils we have been holding each week in this week’s edition (30 January 2025). It said:

“A silent vigil took place outside the library to express a hope for the of violence in the Middle East. On Saturday the 60th silent vigil took place outside Salisbury Library with around 50 people attending. The weekly vigils are an expression of hope for an end to violence and a peaceful future in the Middle East and in the most recent [event] people carried flowers and candles and displayed heartfelt messages.

The messages emphasised the message for a permanent ceasefire. A spokesperson from vigil said “we call on the UK government to take immediate action to ensure accountability and justice for Palestinians. All arms sales to Israel muse be suspended. This is a moment of truth for the UK. To continue shielding Israel from accountability is to abandon the principles of justice and human rights that the UK claims to uphold.”

These vigils are supported by local groups of Amnesty International, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Christian Aid, Quakers, Sarum Concern for Israel Palestine and many others.”

The vigils will continue and the next is this Saturday 1st February at 5pm as usual for half an hour. All welcome.

Also in the Journal, the local MP Mr Glen, spoke of his presence at the Holocaust memorial which took place in the city. He has not acknowledged in his weekly columns any of the 60 vigils so far held.

January 30, 2025 0

Category: Human rights,

Court Decisions Impacting Protests and Gender Rights in the UK

Significant number of things happened this month