When the right to protest remains, but demonstrating comes at a price
A comparative study of 14 countries finds a consistent pattern of criminalizing climate protest across the Global North and South: new anti-protest laws, aggressive prosecution, surveillance, and public vilification of activists. UK climate protests result in arrests 17.2% of the time versus a 6.3% international average, and Berlin prosecutors opened 5,681 proceedings against Last Generation activists between 2022 and 2025, though nearly half were dropped.
Recent cases include a French appellate court upholding convictions over the Sainte-Soline protest, a Turkish activist sentenced to over two years after 42 days in pretrial detention, and 138 arrests at an Australian coal port blockade. Meanwhile the UN's Michel Forst issued guidelines in October 2025 urging states not to use civil disobedience as a pretext to restrict civic space.
The European Court of Human Rights' July 2025 ruling in Ludes and Others v. France illustrates the tension: judges acknowledged the protest was non-violent and addressed a genuine matter of public interest, then upheld the conviction anyway by a 5-2 vote, distinguishing between removing government portraits and refusing to return them. Two dissenting judges argued the ongoing absence of the portraits was itself part of the protected message.
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