Banning meetings and events Since October 2023, many universities
– including Birmingham, and London’s Goldsmiths and School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) – have introduced rules requiring students and staff to obtain prior permission before holding events or protests on their campuses.
Although some policies use the language of ‘notice’, they operate as permit systems in so far as protests may only proceed once the university has approved them. Notice may require advanced submission of organiser identities, proposed slogans and messaging, risk assessments and logistical plans. This transforms protest from a right into a conditional privilege. Such restrictions fail to meet the requirements of international law, including Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Articles 19 and 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which protect political speech and peaceful assembly.
Closing down encampments Since October 2023 a wave of student
encampments was established in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, with demands such as divestment of their university’s assets from companies supplying arms to Israel. Many UK universities responded by taking disciplinary action on the basis of their internal polices or codes of conduct. Some, such as Cambridge and Cardiff, used possession orders and wide-ranging civil injunctions to close down the encampments and prohibit assemblies across parts of their campuses. Such orders expose students and staff to contempt of court, with the risk of fines and imprisonment, merely for engaging in protests. Gina Romero, the UN’s special rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, views such injunctions as a threat to freedom of assembly and expression and urges universities to refrain from imposing such blanket
restrictions. Academic institutions,
she says, should facilitate and protect peaceful assemblies in line with international standards.
SPRING 2026 AMNESTY 13
ManY universities have been treating peaceful Palestine solidarity assemblies as disciplinary issues
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