Word count: 579
OOC:
- Prospective replacement for Right to Assemble, which I am seeking to repeal.
- RtA enjoys a consensus with Right to Peaceful Assembly on the issues of permitting peaceful assembly, protecting organisation and participation, and requiring neutral standards on advocacy of violence which I support; I side with Maowymondham on permitting legal activity and with GC on Article 5 of RtA.
- And, of course, I make no apologies for taking inspiration from the Human Rights Committee's General Comment no.37 - particularly paragraphs 19 (Article c(i)'s "broadly... violen[t]" requirement), 22 (Article a(ii)'s facial-neutrality requirement), 24 (Article h), 40 (Article c(iv)), 45 (the danger-to-health criterion in Article a(iii), although this was also inspired by GA#537's failings as admitted by its author), and 66 (Articles e(ii) and f(iii)).
- You may be asking why I believe that this is a Civil Rights proposal - despite RtA, RtPA, and Freedom of Assembly all being Furtherment of Democracy proposals.
- This primarily lies in the fact that - in line with paragraph 12 of GC37 - I make no requirement that peaceful assemblies express an opinion, although I used that very minimal requirement in Draft 1. (RtA uses "articulating or advocating any belief or ambition;" RtPA uses to "advocate or pursue any cause, goal, ideology, or allegiance," FoA uses to "promote, pursue, and express any goal, cause, or view.") RtA and FoA both have a strong emphasis on how assembly can bring about political change; mine (obviously) does not.
- An opinion, by definition, can be about both political topics (such as urging governments to take action on climate change) and non-political topics (such as urging the manager of one's favourite sports team to resign, or recommending the boycott of a movie directed by or starring an individual convicted or credibly accused of serious sexual assault).
- In addition, Articles e and f of my proposal lay out basic standards regarding the rights of those who organise and participate in peaceful assemblies, with little to no regard for how political or apolitical those assemblies may be.
Protecting Peaceful Assembly
A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.Category: Civil RightsStrength: StrongProposed by: Tinhampton
Believing that freedom of expression cannot be truly guaranteed without a corresponding right to publicly and peacefully assemble, whether to express opinions or for some other purpose, the General Assembly hereby:Co-authors: Desmosthenes and Burke, Maowi
- defines, for the purposes of this resolution:
- a "peaceful assembly" as any public, non-violent gathering of two or more people,
- a "restrictable assembly" as any peaceful assembly where:
- the organizers or participants in the assembly engage in an act which is illegal under the publically promulgated and known law of the jurisdiction(s) in which the assembly occurs,
- the organizers or participants in the assembly explicitly incite, demand, or request participants or observers engage in actual and imminent unlawful behaviour, or
- the time, method, manner, or any combination thereof of the assembly constitutes a demonstrable danger to the health or safety of the participants or general public, and
- "relevant actors" as a member state where a peaceful assembly is occuring, the political subdivision(s) it occurs in, and law enforcement agencies ordinarily operating in said member state(s) and political subdivision(s),
- proclaims that all inhabitants of member states have the right to organise and participate in peaceful assembly (subject only to Articles c and d), and to that extent forbids member states from prohibiting the acts of organising and participating in peaceful assemblies,
- permits relevant actors to break up, prohibit, and otherwise prevent or end a peaceful assembly where it is:
- necessary to permit the operation or functioning of the emergency services or other essential services,
- requested by the owner of private property where that assembly is occuring, or
- in accordance with reasonable restrictions on the time, manner, and/or location of assemblies, provided such restrictions are publically communicated, objective, facially neutral, and evenly administered without prejudice,
- further permits relevant actors to break up, prohibit, and otherwise prevent or end any restrictable assembly, save that they may not act in an arbitrary or discriminatory way while doing so,
- requires that relevant actors:
- permit any activity that is legal outside of peaceful assemblies, where that activity occurs within that assembly,
- refrain from requiring any person to partake in any assembly, except where the assembly is within the course of that person’s employment and the assembly does not pertain to a topic that (taking into account the political context of the relevant actor) can be reasonably regarded as partisan,
- permit all peaceful assemblies except as provided for above, and
- refrain from retaliation or discrimination against any organiser or participant in an assembly that is not subject to Articles c or d,
- clarifies that relevant actors:
- may not classify an assembly as restrictable on safety grounds due to the actual or expected response or behaviour of third parties,
- may arrest or detain participants in an assembly on the same grounds and manner they would be permitted to outside of an assembly, and
- must act in a legal and proportionate manner when acting under Articles c and d, and must employ the least restrictive means possible in such cases,
- further clarifies that nothing in this resolution requires relevant actors to break up, prohibit, or otherwise prevent any assembly, nor prohibits them from adopting less restrictive policies,
- encourages groups who object to the messages being conveyed by a peaceful assembly to organise their own peaceful assembly to counter such messages, and
- urges member states and their emergency services to protect participants in peaceful assemblies as they happen.