The ability of communities to organise, provide critical voices and offer something more than symbolic opposition to the fracking industry is essential.
But there are increasingly severe outcomes and restrictions on protesters involved in protest actions against the fracking industry. These sentences are disproportionate to the acts that they have committed.
We should all be treated equally under the law, no matter what we're protesting about. And the UK government needs to protect the right to protest, starting with commissioning the Joint Committee on Human Rights to conduct a thematic inquiry into the declining space for civil society to effectively oppose the fracking industry in the UK.
Why is this important?
On 26 September 2018, four protesters received lengthy custodial sentences for their part in blocking fracking trucks from entering Preston New Road site.
The civil space for local communities to protest against the shale oil and gas industry in the UK is becoming more and more restricted and this represents a growing threat to fundamental rights to freedom of expression and assembly. This is exemplified by:
- The granting of sweeping civil injunctions to private companies, giving them special legal treatment in the face of widespread public protests.
- Central government proposals to bypass local councils by making exploratory drilling a ‘permitted development’ - removing the need for planning permission and for local communities to raise their objections through their local representative body.
