Declaration calls for governments to protect protest

The Human Rights Law Centre and Australian Democracy Network have today called for governments across Australia to adhere to international standards and human rights law to ensure protest rights are protected in the Declaration of Our Right to Protest.

Endorsed by 60 civil society organisations, including the Australian Council of Social Services, Greenpeace Australia, and Amnesty International Australia, the Declaration sets out the minimum standards governments must meet to protect our fundamental right to protest and offers ten practical steps to safeguard the right from further erosion.

In recent years across the country, governments have enacted a worrying proliferation of anti-protest laws, which often expressly target or disproportionately impact environmental defenders and people advocating for action on climate change.

In June, South Australia became the latest jurisdiction to impose severe penalties on people for engaging in peaceful protest, joining New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland who have passed anti-protest laws in the last five years.

Last month, Four Corners also revealed the escalating tactics being used by the fossil fuel industry, such as government backdoor lobbying and legal intimidation by big companies.

David Mejia-Canales, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre said:

“The right to protest is fundamental to our democracy. Protest has been crucial to achieving many important social changes from First Nations land rights to the eight-hour workday. Yet across the country we have seen a range of draconian anti-protest laws set in place. The right to protest is a cornerstone of a robust civil society that holds the powerful to account.

“As we enter the era of climate crisis, the multibillion-dollar fossil fuel industry is determined to silence everyday people who are deeply worried about their future. Governments must not give in to their demands for profit at the expense of our planet, and our right to speak up.

“When governments erode our protest rights, they erode our democracy. This declaration provides governments with solutions in law-making to create a democracy where protest rights are protected.”

Ray Yoshida, Campaigner at the Australian Democracy Network said:

“For too long governments in Australia have paid lip service to our rights and freedoms while actively undercutting them. They have said they tolerate protest - providing it’s lawful - while at the same time changing the law to constrain what people can legally do.

“It’s time to draw a line in the sand. This declaration sets out 10 principles which all government agencies must abide by for our democratic rights to be fully realised. We call on governments at all levels to uphold these standards.”

Background

In the last 20 years, 34 different bills that impact or erode our right to protest have been introduced into Parliaments around the country by Labor and Liberal-National Coalition state, territory and federal governments. Of these, 26 have passed into law.

In the same time period only 15 bills to protect or defend our right to peacefully protest have been introduced and of these, only 10 of these passed into law.

Read the Declaration of the Right to Protest here.

Signatories:

350.org Australia
Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia Limited
ACTCOSS
ActionAid Australia
Aid/Watch
Amnesty International Australia
Animal Liberation NSW
Animal Liberation Queensland
ARRCC (Australian Religious Response to Climate Change)
Asylum Seekers Centre NSW
Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility
Australian Council of Social Service
Australian Democracy Network
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights
Australian Services Union SA+NT Branch
Be Slavery Free
Chuffed.org
Community Legal Centres NSW
Community Legal WA
Conservation Council of SA
Conservation Council of WA
CounterAct
Disrupt Burrup Hub
Environment Council of Central Queensland
Environment Victoria
Environmental Justice Australia
Flat Out Inc
Friends of the Earth Australia
Grata Fund
Greenpeace Australia Pacific
Human Rights Law Centre
Human Rights Watch
knowmore
Liberty Victoria
Mackay Conservation Group
Monash University Climate Justice Clinic
NSW Council for Civil Liberties
Parents for Climate
Peoples Health Movement Australia (PHM OZ)
Public Interest Advocacy Centre
Queensland Conservation Council
Queensland Council for Civil Liberties
Rights Advocacy Project
Rights Resource Network SA
SCALES Community Legal Centre
South Australian Abortion Action Coalition
South Australian Council of Social Service
South Australian Rainbow Advocacy Alliance Inc
TasCOSS
The Australia Institute
The Green Institute
The Nature Conservation Council of NSW
Tomorrow Movement
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service
Victorian Forest Alliance
WA Forest Alliance
WACOSS
Wage Peace
Whitsunday Conservation Council
World Animal Protection