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More tough extremism laws in the UK
The UK government has announced further tough legislation to deal with animal rights extremism.
The United Kingdom government has announced that it will bring in new laws which will make it a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, for animal rights activists to inflict 'economic damage' on a company. Under these proposals it would become an offence to interfere with the commercial activities of a company that uses animals in research. This would include any activites directed at the staff of such a company and at other companies that are customers of the original company or at anyone who supplies services to the company. The new laws would also cover universities and medical research charities. The government said it would bring these laws in as fast as possible, by adding them to the Serious and Organised Crime Bill, which was already passing through the Houses of Parliament.
The new offences come in addition to measures currently in the Bill to tackle intimidation and harassment by extremists. These include:
A new offence of protesting outside someone's home in such a way that causes harassment, alarm or distress to residents.
Additional powers for a constable to direct a protestor to leave the vicinity of a home and not return to within such period as the constable may specify, up to three months.
Extension to the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 to cover harassment of two or more people
Trade and Industry Minister Patricia Hewitt said, "We can't have these extremists going way beyond the bounds of peaceful protest into these vicious campaigns of intimidation which have not yet been stopped by individual laws. The law that we are proposing is the right response to what is becoming a growing problem and which is threatening to destroy a very important part of medical research in our country. The simple fact is that attacks by animal rights extremist put medical breakthroughs in areas like AIDS, cancer and Alzheimer's directly at risk."
Animal rights and civil liberties groups expressed their concerns about the proposed legislation. Shami Chakrabati, Director of Liberty, the civil rights organisation, said that the proposals were unclear and worrying and needed urgent clarification. But Ms Hewitt said that the proposed law was compatible with human rights legislation and would not interfere with the right to protest peacefully.