‘Amnesty International observers watched PSNI officers help the Metropolitan Police to haul older people, people with disabilities and relatives of holocaust survivors from the streets into police vans’ - Patrick Corrigan

PSNI has breached international human rights obligations to uphold the right to peaceful protest

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) was in breach of international human rights obligations to uphold the right to peaceful protest when they assisted the Metropolitan Police to arrest people at a ‘Defend Our Juries’ protest in London on Saturday, Amnesty International has said.

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland Director, said:

“Amnesty International observers watched PSNI officers help the Metropolitan Police to haul older people, people with disabilities and relatives of holocaust survivors from the streets into police vans.

“Police chiefs have discretion as to how they choose to police demonstrations. Arresting hundreds of people for peacefully sitting down and holding cardboard signs is not the job of police. These arrests are in breach of the UK’s international human rights obligations and should not be happening – whether in Belfast or London.

“I have previously written to the PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher to urge compliance with the UK’s international obligations in relation to these peaceful protests. It is therefore disappointing to see PSNI actions in London this weekend in breach of those obligations.

“The UK Government should not be criminalising peaceful demonstrators to distract from their failure to take meaningful action to end Israel’s genocide.”

Amnesty has long criticised UK terrorism law for being excessively broad, vaguely worded and a threat to freedom of expression. Police responses to these peaceful protests only further confirm that our concerns are justified.