The UK High Court has upheld the challenge to the banning of Palestine Action under UK terrorism laws.
This important judgment provides a shot in the arm for democracy and rights in the UK.
HRW's Yasmine Ahmed explains more ⤵️
🚨 New from @hrw.org: #UN member states should select a champion of #HumanRights as the next UN Secretary-General as the UN faces a crisis amid a global retreat on rights & democracy. - by Widad Franco
“It’s imperative that Starmer doesn’t abandon principle in pursuit of profit during his visit to Beijing.
At the very least, he needs to publicly press Xi for the release of Jimmy Lai and speak up for the dramatic erasure of freedoms in Hong Kong.”
- @yasmineahmed.bsky.social / @hrw.org
"They left the building. Not the truth."
A powerful new documentary, 80 Angry Journalists, shows how Hungary’s once-independent news outlet Index was taken over, and how reporters resigned together rather than submit to political pressure.
Trailer⤵️
Here @lydsg.bsky.social & @yasmineahmed.bsky.social explain what a proposed amendment to the Public Order Act 2023 could do to protest rights
Categorizing “life sciences” as “key national infrastructure” could restrict peaceful protests outside pharma companies.
www.hrw.org/news/2026/01...
The right to protest is under attack in the United Kingdom.
In a new report, HRW documents that the UK’s Labour government has failed to reverse sweeping anti-protest laws introduced by the previous Conservative government.
Learn more: https://bit.ly/4qerKB0
Freedom of assembly is not a gift or privilege governments grant their citizens, it's a right that protects citizens from their governments. @hrw.org report out today about the impact of the UK's increasingly repressive anti-protest laws. www.hrw.org/news/2026/01...
We @hrw.org don't ring this alarm bell lightly.
The Government must immediately change course and safeguard the right to peaceful protest and end any and all misappropriation of terrorism laws.
End 🧵
4. Repeal/amend the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 so the right to protest is adequately safeguarded
5. Ensure that any independent review of protest laws is sufficiently resourced & robust with broad terms of reference
3. End the excessive pre trial detention (over 3 x the max time a prisoner can spend on remand) & take heed of the concerns the UN raised re treatment of pro-Palestine protesters
www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...
2. End the use of terrorism laws 2 target & criminalise direct action protest groups. Something the UN Human Rights Chief @volkerturk.bsky.social has raised very serious concerns about
⬇️
www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...
➡️Ban the use of face coverings by protestors - many in the Hong Kong diasopora, for example, are very concerned about this given Chinese transnational repression
➡️Impose conditions that put people with insecure immigration status, such as asylum seekers, at risk of deportation
➡️Enhance powers 2 curtail recurring protests based on the supposed ‘cumulative impact' of the disruption caused by previous – or even future – protests
So what should the Gov do?
1. Withdraw (or at the very least suspend consideration of) the new anti-protest measures in that are being consider by Parliament THIS WEEK which:
The alarm bell is also being rung by
@justicehq.bsky.social in their new report published today which finds that right to protest in the UK faces its most serious assault in decades, as sweeping new laws hand police ever greater powers to suppress dissent
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
The UK sits in the company of countries such as Russia, China & Belarus that have miss-appropriated anti terror measures & introduced laws that curtain dissent
How can the UK 🗣️ about the rights of protestors in Iran & Sri Lanka when on our streets they are silencing dissent?
Yes the gov has the right to police protest in a proportionate manner & arrest those that are breaking the law, but they already have those powers!!
What we have now in the UK is a landscape & architecture of anti protest laws and measures that are nothing short of gov overreach
This Govt is setting an very dangerous precedent. 2day it's those protesting climate change & genocide 2morrow it's whomever else this or future govt's disagree with
The Gov has an obligation to not only allow but 2 facilitate peaceful protest, instead it's clamping down on it
Had the suffragette struggle been 2day, Pankhurst wld likely be in lengthy pre trial detention (possibly on charges with a terrorism connection) awaiting a significant prison sentence
My daughter and I and thousands of British women may never have achieved the right to vote
The impact?
Police can & have curtailed demonstrations with limited oversight on the basis of vague statutory provisions & broad police discretion
Peaceful protest has been criminalised - thousands arrested & some facing prison terms for as little as participating in a zoom📞
This Gov is undermining the most fundamental of our democratic rights, the right to hold the gov 2 account & have OUR voices heard
David Lammy criticised these laws when in opposition & is now presiding over a Justice Dep that is green lighting new laws
🚨 ALERT: 2day @hrw.org released a new report that raises the alarm about the right to protest in the UK
This UK Govt has not only failed to repeal sweeping anti-protest laws but has introduced further repressive restrictions 🧵
www.hrw.org/report/2026/...
Oped by @yasmineahmed.bsky.social on UK govt's immigration plans:
"We've seen the injustices caused by a hostile environment with the Windrush generation. Instead of learning from that shameful chapter, these proposals risk recreating the same architecture of precarity"
www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...
The UK’s new immigration plan is a profound retreat from the humane approach Labour promised voters. Labour should recognize the enormous contributions refugees make, and the moral and legal obligation to provide protection. ✍️ HRW's @yasmineahmed.bsky.social
Read more: https://bit.ly/4pC73hJ
HRW quote card that says, “The UK government’s decision to end the cruel "two-child limit” social security policy is welcome and long-overdue. It forced growing numbers of children and families into poverty and undermined their rights.” Kartik Raj, Europe Senior Researcher
Good riddance to rubbish policy.
The end to the UK's "two child limit" social security policy has been announced, and it will soon be gone.
We @hrw.org welcome the news, as one of many, many, many voices calling for an end to this arbitrary, cruel social security policy.
Today the DWP will publish the terms of reference for its review of PIP.
It is vital that changes are properly co-produced with disabled people.
This isn’t just about warm words. This is about making sure we get policy right.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
A court decision today has given the United Kingdom government a green light to continue to supply F-35 military jet components that are used by Israel in Gaza.
This is a sad day for justice, accountability, and for the Palestinian people, who continue to face acts of genocide.
Journalist @antoinettelattouf.bsky.social won her case for unlawful termination against the ABC over the posting of a @hrw.org report on Gaza.
Journalists should be encouraged to post factual information about human rights violations not penalized for doing so. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/w...
This is what moral courage and having principles looks like.
Well done to the 108 MPs who have stood up and acted on their conscience 👏
UK Parliamentarians should reject the government’s plan to cut disability benefits, and be clear that budget savings should not come at the cost of the rights—especially the right to social security—of people with disabilities.
Human dignity must come first.
@hrw.org
www.hrw.org/news/2025/06...
