Non-Credit Course: Human Rights Strategy Human Rights Activism, Protest and the Law in the UK
The Bonavero Institute seeks to enrich the human rights experience of Oxford students, and to assist them to develop careers in the broad field of human rights. Its “Gateways to Human Rights Research and Practice” initiative aims to deepen student engagement with the institute’s research projects and to provide insights into human rights practice. Several programmes form part of this initiative: Non-credit Courses on Human Rights Strategy, Research Training Programmes, various opportunities for Human Rights Mooting, the Collaborative Legal Aid Clinics at HMP Huntercombe and at UK prisons holding foreign national women, and our Summer Fellowship Programme.
Programme
In Michaelmas Term 2023 the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights offered a non-credit course in developing strategies for the protection and promotion of human rights with a focus on the role of law in relation to human rights activism in the UK. The course assessed the impact of recent developments in UK law on the ability of human rights activists to organise and protest, as well as the use of law by activists to challenge human rights violations.
Content of the project
This seminar series considered the current legal landscape related to the right to protest. Its overall aim is to engage students in the critical evaluation of the relevant international human rights framework as well as recent powers introduced in the UK and elsewhere to restrict protest rights. In doing so, the series will present insights from practitioners and activists on the operation of the relevant legal frameworks in practice.
The seminars covered several different topics related to this landscape:
- Seminar One: The Importance of Protest for Human Rights and Democracy
This seminar examined the role of protest in securing human rights protection. The class debated the importance of disruptive forms of protest for the development of women’s rights and labour rights, drawing from examples of their own choosing. Then, in conversation with an expert in international human rights law, the seminar examined the development of legal protections for the right to protest in international and regional human rights law.
- Seminar Two: Complexities Arising from Protest in Practice
This seminar considered complex issues raised by protecting protest in practice by reference to three case studies: Just Stop Oil, anti-lockdown protests during the COVID-19 pandemic, and protests led by schoolgirls in Iran. Such issues arise for example when protest rights conflict with other human rights, and related public interests such as public order. In examining these tensions, the seminar covered topics such as accessibility to protest by those with disabilities and the psychology of crowds. Issues related to the scope of protest rights were also considered, such as whether these rights apply in the case of protests conducted online. The class questioned the extent to which the protections in international human rights law appropriately navigate such complexities.
- Seminar Three: New Powers to Restrict Protest – in Theory
This class focused on new UK law to restrict protest introduced by the Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Act 2022, the Public Order Act 1986 (Serious Disruption to the Life of the Community) Regulations 2023, and the Public Order Act 2023. The class, in small groups, conducted a policy review of separate parts of this new legislation, based on the black letter of the powers themselves. The class then heard from a legal expert about the new powers.
- Seminar Four – New Powers to Restrict Protest – in Practice
This final seminar focused on critically assessing the new UK powers on the basis of how they will operate in practice. The class heard from an individual who has been directly affected by the recent changes to protest law. The class then debated the extent to which the new powers are justified, by reference to the case studies examined in Seminar Two, including to assess whether such powers are compatible with international and regional human rights law.