Climate activists are peaceful, pro-Zwarte Piet protesters not: Amnesty International

The police’s public statements of annoyance that the over 1,500 Extinction Rebellion activists they arrested during an A12 highway blockade in The Hague on Saturday will not be prosecuted is unjustified, human rights organizations said to AD. The climate activists were holding a peaceful demonstration. The “blokeerfriezen” who the police compared them to were not.

On Sunday, the police unions said that the police were incredibly frustrated by the fact that the Public Prosecution Service (OM) wouldn’t prosecute the Extinction Rebellion activists they arrested on Saturday. They referred to the “blokeerfriezen” - a group of Friesland residents who blocked the A7 highway on 18 November 2017 so that Kick Out Zwarte Piet protesters couldn’t reach their approved demonstration at the national Sinterklaas party in Dokkum. They were prosecuted for the blockade and sentenced to community service.

But the difference is that the climate activists were peaceful, the “blokeerfriezen” weren't, Gerbrig Klos of Amnesty International said to AD. “The purpose of the bokeerfriezen’s blockade was to hinder or prevent demonstrations by Kick Out Zwarte Piet. That does not fall under a peaceful protest and is therefore punishable.” The Extinction Rebellion protest was peaceful. “Of course: every demonstration is accompanied by a disturbance of public order. But people who demonstrate without violence exercise a human right.”

Measures against peaceful demonstrators cannot be excessive, lawyer Willem Jebbink said to the newspaper. “The same applies to subsequent measures, such as prosecution or sanctions. If the measures are too strict, the freedom of demonstration will come under too much pressure,” he said. “Citizens will be deterred from publicly making their voices heard.” The European Court of Human Rights also confirmed this, according to AD.

Greenpeace was also not impressed by the police’s public complaints. “This is not about the police, but about the right to protest. The demonstrators would love to do this with the police and judiciary. Because it is about making your point against fossil fuel subsidies, something that is socially relevant,” Faiza Oulahsen of the environmental organization said. With their public complaint, the police are making the demonstration about them and not preventing further climate damage.

According to Oulahsen, the municipality of The Hague could also have chosen not to have the activists arrested. “But the municipality refused to facilitate the demonstration. So the authorities chose to arrest them and then complain that they are not taken seriously.”

This isn’t about the police, lawyer Jan Vlug also said. In a country where “thousands of criminal cases” are left unhandled due to lack of capacity, the OM’s decision not to prosecute peaceful demonstrators is “completely logical,” he said to AD. “Freedom of expression is what matters. It is total nonsense to double sanction all those people who were there for a good cause.”

Lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops, on the other hand, worries that the lack of prosecution will encourage more highway blockades in the future.