Since 2022, the Conservative British government has passed an arsenal of laws criminalizing the peaceful protest actions of climate activists. In a statement calling out a "draconian" legal environment, on January 23, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders Michel Forst, expressed his "grave concern" on January 23. He explained that he had received "extremely worrying" information from NGOs and activists he had met during an early January visit to the UK, and reminded the British authorities that, faced with the threefold crisis facing the planet – climate change, pollution and the loss of biodiversity – these activists were demonstrating "for the benefit of us all," and that they needed to be protected.

Forst cited the case of an activist sentenced in December 2023 to six months in prison for having taken part in a peaceful north London march for only "approximately thirty minutes." Stephen Gingell, a 57-year-old father and activist with the Just Stop Oil organization, has appealed the decision. He was convicted under a section of the Public Order Act, a 2023 law criminalizing any act "interferes with the use or operation of any key national infrastructure" – such as roads, freeways or fuel storage facilities.

In 2022, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act also gave the police expanded powers to restrict the right to protest: They could make arrests on the sole grounds that demonstrators were making too much noise. This law also created the offense of "intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance," which is punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment.

In April 2023, Just Stop Oil activists Morgan Trowland, 40, and Marcus Decker, 34, were sentenced for this offense to three years' and two years and seven months' imprisonment, respectively. These are the harshest sentences against peaceful protesters ever handed down in the UK.

In October 2022, the two men had scaled the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge over the River Thames in east London, blocking traffic for almost 40 hours. "You have to be punished for the chaos you caused and to deter others from copying you," insisted judge Shane Collery, in delivering the ruling. The two activists' appeal was rejected in July 2023. Morgan Trowland was granted parole in December 2023.

Decker, who has been imprisoned since October 2022, finished serving his sentence on Monday, February 5. However, this activist, a German national, has been threatened with deportation and must remain in detention while the Home Office rules on his situation. "We have just applied for his release on bail. If he is released, he will probably have to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet," said his partner, Holly Cullen-Davies, when contacted by telephone.

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