The way police handle
protests will have to be changed radically after
peace campaigners won a ruling in the House of
Lords yesterday that police violated their human
rights by stopping them attending an anti-Iraq
demonstration.
Five law lords ruled that police violated the
protesters’ rights to “freedom of expression and
lawful assembly”.
The law lords said
that police from seven forces under the
direction of the Gloucestershire force acted
unlawfully when they stopped and detained
coaches carrying the 120 protesters in March
2003.
Gloucestershire Constabulary said later that
the ruling was “problematic” for the policing of
a wide range of events, including football
matches and large-scale protests. But it would
nonetheless be reviewing its policies, a move
likely to be followed by other forces.
The protesters said that among cases that
could be affected by the ruling was that against
the Metropolitan Police, to be heard early next
year, arising from May Day 2001, when police
detained thousands of people in Oxford Circus,
Central London, for seven hours to “prevent a
breach of peace”.
In the protest at the centre of the case,
coaches were stopped outside Lechlade, near to
the Fairford airbase, from where the Iraq
invasion had been launched by coalition forces
two days earlier. Ninety of those detained
formed Fairford Coach Action to seek judicial
condemnation of the police.
The High Court and Court of Appeal had
already ruled that the police acted unlawfully
in detaining the protesters on their coaches.
But it was also held that police did not violate
the protesters’ rights to freedom of expression
and lawful assembly.
The second ruling was overturned unanimously
yesterday by the law lords, who also dismissed a
cross appeal by the police against the ruling
that the protesters had been unlawfully
detained.
Jane Laporte, in whose name the case was
brought, said after the decision: “I am
absolutely overjoyed. The Lords have confirmed
that freedom to protest is something that should
be treasured in this country and police don’t
have the right to take it away.”
Alex Gask, legal officer for the human rights
group Liberty, which intervened as an interested
party in the appeal, said: “Nothing less than
our freedom of speech was at stake in this case.
“Unmerited concerns (on the part of the
police) about some future ‘breach of the peace’
cannot justify the denial of this fundamental
right.”
Gloucestershire police said that they were
“disappointed” at the judgment and defended
their decision to stop the coaches. “Policing in
scenarios such as those faced at Fairford is
difficult and complex, with competing rights and
responsibilities having to be assessed and acted
upon in real time by operational commanders,” a
statement said.
The force claimed that intelligence suggested
a potential for disorder during the proposed
rally after B52 bombers at the base were
targeted by antiwar campaigners during earlier
demonstrations.
It added that although the judgment was
“problematic” for the policing of a wide range
of events, “Gloucestershire Constabulary accepts
the judgment and we will be reviewing our
policies accordingly”.
