Hearing into public gathering laws during Covid-19 considers evidence by Dr Andy Aydın-Aitchison
Thu 22 April 2021
Dr Andy Aydın-Aitchison, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Edinburgh Law School, has joined an expert panel questioned by members of the new All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy and Constitution as part of their ‘Inquiry Into Respect for the Constitutional Rights to Free Expression and Free Assembly’ after public gathering events at the Clapham Common Vigil on 13 March 2021 and the Bristol protests in March 2021.
Following his submission of written evidence, Dr Andy Aydın-Aitchison was invited to give evidence along with Pippa Woodrow of Doughty Street Chambers and Lord Brian Paddick, former Deputy Assistant Commissioner in the Metropolitan Police Service, before a cross-part group from the Houses of Parliament.
The hearing identified problems in interpreting the law on public gatherings in the context of the COVID19 pandemic and also raised concerns about the expansion of policing powers to limit public assembly in the current Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill.
Dr Andy Aydın-Aitchison's findings evidence that there has been a degree of confusion over the interaction between pandemic regulations and human rights law. He believes that a degree of tolerance is required for non-violent gatherings in a democracy even when they are not strictly in accordance with the law. After the Clapham Common Vigil transitioned into a protest, Andy's position is that protestors were not given adequate time to manifest their views and express solidarity.
In his evidence, Andy expresses concerns about any extension of police powers to place conditions on assemblies without an extension to powers of other actors to scrutinise decisions and hold police to account, and demonstrates a conflict of interest when police can place prohibitive conditions on gatherings that protest against police and call them to account.
In his evidence, Dr Andy Aydın-Aitchison refers to his Open Access paper co-authored with Ceren Mermutluoğlu (Galatasary and MEF Universities, Istanbul): ‘Mapping Human Rights to Democratic Policing Through the ECHR’.