Guidance on proscribed organisations
As you can imagine, XRUK is deeply concerned about the Government's proscription last week of a nonviolent direct action group against the genocide in Palestine.
The implications for the right to protest are troubling and we have developed the following policy and guidance. We believe it is the best course of action to keep everyone safe.
We will continue to evaluate the situation as it develops.
Legal Briefing: references to proscribed organisations and to Palestine.
You will all be aware of the recent proscription of a direct action group in the UK. There is a very useful overview of this by CAGE that can be found here.
Under the Terrorism Act 2000 it is an offence to:
- belong, or profess to belong, to a proscribed organisation in the UK or overseas. Section 11 TACT
- express an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation. Section 12(1A) TACT
- arrange, manage or assist in arranging or managing a meeting in the knowledge that the meeting is to support or further the activities of a proscribed organisation, or is to be addressed by a person who belongs or professes to. Section 12(2) TACT
- wear clothing or carry or display articles in public in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that the individual is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation. Section 13 TACT
- publish an image of an item of clothing or other article, such as a flag or logo, in the same circumstances. Section 13(1A) TACT
Penalties can be found here
Penalties can range from a fine, to 6 months imprisonment, to up to 14 years in prison for the more serious offences.
Guidance for Local & Community Groups
Please do not get yourself in a situation where you're breaking the Terrorism Act (to reduce risks for yourself, your group and also the wider XR movement).
Please do not post any content in support of a proscribed organisation.
Posting content around the legal challenge via courts of Palestine Action being proscribed, or even mentioning them in a post is tricky and you may want to seek support before posting.
Also it’s advisable to be careful when you post or re-post anything around issues regarding Palestine in general so that you don't accidently break the Terrorism Act.
If you have any concerns about content you’d like to post, then please get in touch with the legal team.
Contact xr-legal@riseup.net.
In an XRUK Working Group?
XRUK has adopted a stricter internal policy, which applies to teams such as UK M&M and others, in order to protect rebels within the movement. We are looking at updating this to be less restrictive, keep an eye out for changes.
The following guidelines are to apply when anything is to go onto any of XRUK (i.e circles within the Hive) outward-facing channels on the internet, social media or printed/physical media: at present this only applies to circles in Operations, with a request that the Hive adopts this policy for is to apply to all circles within it.
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There should be no references whatsoever to any proscribed organisation or any links to any actions in relation to that group.
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Whilst it is clearly permissible to protest in relation to the situation in Palestine, no references to Palestine should be made on any of our XRUK’s outward-facing channels without having been cleared by the Legal team first.
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This applies to all social media and internet posts, website, published and printed media and assets, creation and storage of materials as well as Telegram broadcasts.
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If, retrospectively, a post is considered to be risky by the Legal team then it must be removed from our social media, internet site, broadcast channels, or printed/physical media.
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If there any proposed changes to this policy, XRUK Legal must be consulted and involved in the process.
Messaging Guidance
COMING SOON!
The existing messaging information on conflict in relation to the climate and ecological emergency might also be useful. You can read that here.