On Sept. 6, 2023, the Limburg District Court ruled that 3 of the 6 restrictions on the 2021 Klimaatalarm demonstration in Heerlen were unlawful. This is good news for the right to demonstrate.
The case was brought by Klimaatcoalitie Parkstad and 6 national organizations of the Climate Crisis Coalition, including: Environmental Defense, Greenpeace, Code Red, Grandparents for Climate, DeGoedeZaak and Extinction Rebellion.
The Climate Alert took place on March 14, 2021, during the peak of the corona pandemic. Demonstrators wore mouth masks and kept the 1.5-meter distance. Yet the Heerlen municipality imposed several restrictions on them. Against 6 of these restrictions the organizers of the demonstration appealed to the municipality and then to the court, on 3 of these issues Klimaatcoalitie Parkstad was vindicated by the court.
The court found that the rule that the number of participants in the demonstration may not exceed 200 was permissible, but ruled that the obligation to send people away when this maximum was reached was wrongly imposed, since this is not a task of the organization of this demonstration, but of the public authority.
Nor should the obligation to provide names of speakers in a timely manner have been imposed. By doing so, the municipality is interfering with the content of the thoughts and feelings of the demonstrators. This violates the right to demonstrate.
Finally, the obligation that deals with not obstructing traffic also cannot stand, since some traffic disruption must be tolerated during a demonstration. It is up to the government to ensure that traffic is managed.
Lotte Keularts of Klimaatcoalitie Parkstad: “Good that the judge recognized that many of the restrictions went too far. Organizing the demonstration was not made easy for us, while the climate crisis is disrupting our world. Just look at the floods in southern Limburg.’
The coalition’s lawyer, Jelle Klaas of PILP, calls the ruling a win for the right to demonstrate in the Netherlands. According to experts, this is under pressure: ‘It is the task of municipalities to facilitate demonstrations. Restrictions may only be imposed if they are necessary and in line with the law and human rights. That was not the case here. The court outlined some clear new boundaries for restrictions. This is good news for future demonstrations.’
Read more about the right to protest on our file page. The full ruling can be accessed here.
