While developed nations preach to the world about the urgency of addressing climate change, a new study paints a starkly contrasting picture of their actions. Climate Rights International (CRI), a non-governmental organization, has released a report highlighting a disturbing trend: developed countries in the ‘Global North’ are actively silencing climate activists, employing the same repressive tactics they condemn in authoritarian regimes of the ‘Global South.’
The 70-page report, titled ‘On Thin Ice: Disproportionate Responses to Climate Change Protesters in Democratic Countries,’ details how nations like the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden are resorting to harsh, vague, and punitive measures to crack down on climate protests. These measures include lengthy prison sentences, preventive detention, and systematic harassment. CRI argues that such actions constitute a blatant violation of these governments’ legal responsibility to protect fundamental rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association.
Brad Adams, the Director at CRI, points out the stark hypocrisy of these governments. “Governments too often take such a strong and principled view about the right to peaceful protest in other countries – but when they don’t like certain kinds of protests at home they pass laws and deploy the police to stop them,” Adams told The Guardian.
In a press release, Adams emphasizes the need for governments to recognize climate protesters as allies in the fight against climate change. “Governments should see climate protesters and activists as allies in the fight against climate change, not criminals. The crackdown on peaceful protests is not only a violation of their basic rights, it can also be used by repressive governments as a green light to go after climate, environmental, and human rights defenders in their countries,” Adams stated.
This report comes at a time when climate protests are escalating in the West. Numerous warnings in recent years have highlighted the urgency of tackling climate change, emphasizing that we are rapidly approaching a point of irreversible damage. Despite their rhetoric, Western nations are facing criticism for failing to take meaningful action, particularly regarding their contributions to an international fund aimed at combating climate change.
Adams urges governments to prioritize listening to activists and taking urgent action instead of resorting to imprisonment. “You don’t have to agree with the tactics of climate activists to understand the importance of defending their rights to protest and to free speech. Instead of jailing climate protesters and undermining civil liberties, governments should heed their call to take urgent action to address the climate crisis,” Adams stated.
Last year, a United Nations (UN) envoy echoed this sentiment, advocating for the protection of climate activists rather than their harassment. “These defenders are basically trying to save the planet, and in doing so save humanity. These are people we should be protecting, but are seen by governments and corporations as a threat to be neutralized. In the end it’s about power and economics,” said Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders to The Guardian.
