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When the right to protest remains, but demonstrating comes at a price

September 29, 2026

European governments are increasingly using criminal laws to prosecute climate and environmental protesters, with arrest rates and legal proceedings significantly exceeding international averages. While UN human rights experts have issued guidelines emphasizing that sanctions against peaceful protesters should be necessary and proportionate, European courts appear to be moving in the opposite direction. The European Court of Human Rights recently upheld criminal convictions against French climate activists who removed presidential portraits from town halls, despite acknowledging the action was non-violent and addressed climate change as a matter of public interest.

Who is affected

  • Climate and environmental protesters across Europe (UK, Germany, France, Turkey, Australia)
  • Letzte Generation (Last Generation) climate movement members in Berlin
  • Four environmental defenders convicted for organizing the Sainte-Soline protest in France
  • Environmental activist Esra Işık in Turkey
  • 138 people arrested at an Australian port
  • Greenpeace activists who protested Arctic oil drilling in Russia
  • Activists protesting coal shipment in Poland
  • ANV-COP21 movement activists who removed President Macron's portraits from French town halls
  • Future protesters potentially deterred by legal consequences
  • The 46 countries under the Council of Europe's jurisdiction

What action is being taken

  • Governments across Europe are arresting and prosecuting climate protesters using criminal laws
  • Prosecutors in Berlin are processing proceedings against Letzte Generation members (though nearly half have been discontinued)
  • French courts are upholding convictions against environmental defenders
  • Turkish courts are sentencing environmental activists to prison
  • Australian authorities are arresting protesters blocking coal infrastructure
  • States are employing surveillance, harassment, and public vilification of activists
  • UN Special Rapporteurs are expressing support for guidelines protecting environmental protest

Why it matters

  • Protest is fundamental to democracy because it allows citizens to challenge power between elections, make dissent visible, and bring issues into public debate when established political channels fail. The criminalization of protest threatens democratic freedoms because states can effectively weaken protest rights without formally abolishing them—simply by making the exercise of those rights increasingly costly through arrests, prosecutions, and financial penalties. This represents a potential shift in Europe's democratic tradition, which has developed since the 1950s through gradually strengthening protections for political expression, assembly, and dissent. The judicial reinterpretation of existing rights, as seen in cases like Ludes v. France, may pose a quieter but more insidious threat than explicit legislative restrictions, as it redefines the boundaries of acceptable democratic dissent and can deter future participation in protests.

What's next

  • No explicit next steps stated in the article

Read full article from source: Global Voices

When the right to protest remains, but demonstrating comes at a price