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Protestors hold a banner reading “Gaza, Palestine, stop genocide” during a demonstration to support Palestinians and to demand for a ceasefire in Paris on June 8, 2024 [ SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images]

Amnesty International has called to protect the right to protest in Europe, warning that the right of peaceful assembly is coming under severe attack as states increasingly stigmatise, criminalise and crack down on peaceful protesters.

In a report published yesterday, the rights watchdog revealed a continent-wide pattern of repressive laws, use of unnecessary or excessive force, arbitrary arrests and prosecutions, unwarranted or discriminatory restrictions as well as the increasing use of invasive surveillance technology, resulting in a systematic roll back of the right to protest.

The report, titled “Under-protected and over-restricted: The state of the right to protest in 21 countries in Europe”, found widespread use of excessive and/or unnecessary use of force by the police against peaceful protesters, including use of less-lethal weapons.

The reported incidents resulted in serious and sometimes permanent injuries including broken bones or teeth (France, Germany, Greece, Italy), the loss of a hand (France), the loss of a testicle (Spain), and dislocated bones, damage to eyes and severe head trauma (Spain).

In some countries, the use of force amounted to torture or other ill-treatment and in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Serbia and Switzerland, excessive use of force was used by law enforcement against children, it added.

The report noted the marked increase in the use of facial recognition technology in Europe. It is currently used by law enforcement agencies in 11 of the countries examined, with a further six planning to introduce it.

“The use of facial recognition technology for identification of protesters amounts to indiscriminate mass surveillance, and no safeguards can prevent the harm it inflicts,” it said.

Amnesty has called for an outright ban on such technology.

It also stressed that portraying activists as criminals, terrorists, extremists, or spies dehumanises the right to protest.

It further indicated that demonising rhetoric by high-level politicians has been particularly prevalent in response to Palestinian solidarity protests.

“Amnesty’s research paints a deeply disturbing picture of a Europe-wide onslaught against the right to protest. Across the continent, authorities are vilifying, impeding, deterring and unlawfully punishing people who peacefully protest,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

“Throughout history, peaceful protest has played a pivotal role in the achievement of many of the rights and freedoms that we now take for granted. And yet across Europe, repressive laws and policies combined with unjustified practices and abusive surveillance technologies are creating a toxic environment which poses a serious threat to peaceful protesters and protests. One of these developments, on their own, in a single country, would be disturbing. But dozens of such repressive tactics on a continental scale is plainly terrifying,” she added.

Source: Middle East Monitor

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