Americans’ right to protest is in grave danger, UN warns

The right to protest is fundamental to American democracy. The United States was born, after all, out of decades of civil disobedience by people angry about taxation without representation.

But according to United Nations human rights investigators, this very basic principle is under attack. Over the past few months, on the heels of a fresh wave of organizing by liberals, at least 19 states have introduced measures that would criminalize peaceful protest.

For example, in places such as Minnesota, Michigan and Iowa, Republican lawmakers have proposed laws that would stiffen penalties for demonstrators who block traffic. In North Dakota, GOP leaders are pushing a bill that would allow motorists to run over and kill agitators, as long as the crash was accidental. In Indiana, conservatives want to instruct police to use “any means necessary” to remove activists from a roadway. Opponents worry this could lead to more brutal police response.

Taken together, the UN warns, these bills represent an “alarming and undemocratic” trend that could have a chilling effect on activism.

“From the Black Lives Matter move- ment, to the environmental and Native American movements in opposition to the Dakota Access oil pipeline, and the Women’s Marches, individuals and organizations across (American) society have mobilized in peaceful protests,” Maina Kiai and David Kaye, independent UN experts on freedom of peaceful assembly, said in a statement. These bills would make that harder.

“The trend also threatens to jeopardize one of the United States’ constitutional pillars: free speech,” the pair wrote.

The bills would also violate international human rights law, they said.