[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[Environment > Copenhagen Climate change conference 2009]
Protests in Copenhagen: Rights groups press for inquiry into police tactics
Bibi van der Zee
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 December 2009 19.38 GMT Article history
Denmark may be breaching European law, Danish human rights groups claimed tonight as they called for their government to launch an immediate inquiry after police in Copenhagen used controversial kettling and mass preventative arrest tactics for the third day running.
Following the arrest of 68 people on Friday, and 958 yesterday on Saturday, police today arrested 257 demonstrators, "kettling" a section of a march near Osterport station, and as they had done on Saturday, cuffed the protesters and put them onto buses transporting them to a detention centre.
As the COP15 climate change summit in Copenhagen carries on into its second week, accounts were emerging of the treatment of the detainees on Saturday night – 945 of them had been released by this morning, with just 13 remaining in custody.
Maria Ludwig, 22, one of the detainees released, had arrived in Copenhagen from Germany on Friday, said: "They kept me for two hours with plastic cuffs around our wrists and our hands behind our back, and then they put us on the bus. We had nothing to eat or drink, and one man asked the police to go to the toilet and they said: 'No way are you going to put your trousers down, you'll just have to piss into your trousers.'"
Another protester from Germany, Chris, who asked not to give his surname, described the way that the detainees were made to sit: "With our legs on either side of the people in front of us, and then leaning on the person behind us, with our hands still cuffed behind our backs. It was very painful for the person behind you and you were in pain from the person in front of you. It looks like Guantánamo when you see it."
He described being kept in cages, constructed by police for holding detainees: "You have a cold solid floor and four mesh walls and a mesh ceiling, and outside cops walking around with dogs."
Humphrey Lloyd, 24, a protester from the UK, was held for six hours: "The whole thing is such an abuse of our right to peaceful assembly. This was so obviously the fluffier part of the march."
Campaign groups, NGOs and human rights groups in Denmark and in Britain condemned the actions of the police. In the UK the use of kettling became controversial at the G20 protests this April.
Claus Bonnez, a lawyer working with Krim, a human rights and legal support organisation, said: "This has all been done under the fairly new law which entitles police to arrest people and keep them for up to 12 hours. But according to the European Court of Human Rights process, the police will have to prove that it is necessary for democratic society to make such arrests. And I don't think that the Danish police will be able to prove that."
Ida Thuesen, of Amnesty International Denmark said: "We call for the government ombudsman to begin an immediate investigation into the arrests last night. When nearly 1,000 people are arrested and then all but 13 are released it means that many of those people were just innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Deborah Doane, director of World Development Movement said: "It's absolutely outrageous that the police responded in this extreme manner on an incredibly family-friendly march. It's a complete violation of the right to protest and a step towards the breakdown of democracy. This is the most crucial issue of our time and the people must be heard, not criminalised."
Activists intend to continue with their demonstrations this week.
[Environment > Copenhagen Climate change conference 2009]
Copenhagen summit: How major blocs have fared and what they want
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 December 2009 19.20 GMT Article history
European Union
Last week: The EU ended the week with a bang, upping its offer of climate aid to poorer nations to €2.4bn a year from next month. But the bloc's trump card – an upgrade from a 20% to a 30% cut to its emissions by 2020 – remained unplayed. Despite the stir it caused, chief negotiator Artur Runge-Metzger said the "Danish text" was "just a piece of paper".
This week: The EU will certainly need to table the 30% offer if the talks are to progress. It will also have to calm the fears of eastern European countries fearful of the costs and soothe the egos of the leaders of the big nations who will want all of the glory of success (or none of the blame). Levies on international aviation and shipping, supported by some EU nations, may help.
US
Last week: The US delegation aimed to show it was serious about taking action to stop global warming, despite the uncertainty of getting a law through congress. But in comments on funding the fight against climate change chief negotiator Todd Stern lived up to his name: "I don't envision public funds, certainly not from the United States, going to China." He also said the US, the biggest carbon emitter in history, did not owe reparations.
This week: The US will fiercely fight off pressure to increase its offers on both emissions cuts and long-term funding. It will stress its 17% target by 2020 on 2005 levels is more than the EU's over the same period. It does seem poised to offer up to $1.5bn for immediate assistance to poor countries.
China
Last week: Vice foreign minister He Yafei ripped into Todd Stern. "I don't want to say the gentleman is ignorant. I think he lacks common sense or is extremely irresponsible". Earlier top climate negotiator Su Wei lambasted rich nations for offering an immediate fund of a mere $10bn a year for developing nations to deal with climate change.
This week: The Chinese delegation are desperate to finalise a document so prime minister Wen Jiabao can avoid being leaned on in a last-minute huddle. When that happened at a recent summit in Europe, Wen was so unhappy with the pressure being put on him to offer more on curbing emissions that he ended the meeting prematurely.
Rest of the world
Last week: The world's 6 billion poor, represented by the 133 countries in the G77 plus China group, the 42 LDCs (least developed countries) and the 47-strong Association of Small Island States (Aosis), began with three objectives: to defend the Kyoto protocol, the only legal treaty that requires developed countries to reduce their emissions; to make sure that rich countries reduce their emissions; and to secure around $400bn a year by 2020.
This week: There is still no long-term money on the table, and the chances of getting really ambitious emissions cut agreements from the rich are minimal. They appear to have won the immediate battle to save the Kyoto protocol, and the poorest and most forested countries could secure more money than others; but there are fears that the eventual cash on offer will not be guaranteed, will be conditional and not additional to existing aid.
[Environment > Copenhagen Climate change conference 2009]
Protests in Copenhagen: Rights groups press for inquiry into police tactics
Bibi van der Zee
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 December 2009 19.38 GMT Article history
Denmark may be breaching European law, Danish human rights groups claimed tonight as they called for their government to launch an immediate inquiry after police in Copenhagen used controversial kettling and mass preventative arrest tactics for the third day running.
Following the arrest of 68 people on Friday, and 958 yesterday on Saturday, police today arrested 257 demonstrators, "kettling" a section of a march near Osterport station, and as they had done on Saturday, cuffed the protesters and put them onto buses transporting them to a detention centre.
As the COP15 climate change summit in Copenhagen carries on into its second week, accounts were emerging of the treatment of the detainees on Saturday night – 945 of them had been released by this morning, with just 13 remaining in custody.
Maria Ludwig, 22, one of the detainees released, had arrived in Copenhagen from Germany on Friday, said: "They kept me for two hours with plastic cuffs around our wrists and our hands behind our back, and then they put us on the bus. We had nothing to eat or drink, and one man asked the police to go to the toilet and they said: 'No way are you going to put your trousers down, you'll just have to piss into your trousers.'"
Another protester from Germany, Chris, who asked not to give his surname, described the way that the detainees were made to sit: "With our legs on either side of the people in front of us, and then leaning on the person behind us, with our hands still cuffed behind our backs. It was very painful for the person behind you and you were in pain from the person in front of you. It looks like Guantánamo when you see it."
He described being kept in cages, constructed by police for holding detainees: "You have a cold solid floor and four mesh walls and a mesh ceiling, and outside cops walking around with dogs."
Humphrey Lloyd, 24, a protester from the UK, was held for six hours: "The whole thing is such an abuse of our right to peaceful assembly. This was so obviously the fluffier part of the march."
Campaign groups, NGOs and human rights groups in Denmark and in Britain condemned the actions of the police. In the UK the use of kettling became controversial at the G20 protests this April.
Claus Bonnez, a lawyer working with Krim, a human rights and legal support organisation, said: "This has all been done under the fairly new law which entitles police to arrest people and keep them for up to 12 hours. But according to the European Court of Human Rights process, the police will have to prove that it is necessary for democratic society to make such arrests. And I don't think that the Danish police will be able to prove that."
Ida Thuesen, of Amnesty International Denmark said: "We call for the government ombudsman to begin an immediate investigation into the arrests last night. When nearly 1,000 people are arrested and then all but 13 are released it means that many of those people were just innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Deborah Doane, director of World Development Movement said: "It's absolutely outrageous that the police responded in this extreme manner on an incredibly family-friendly march. It's a complete violation of the right to protest and a step towards the breakdown of democracy. This is the most crucial issue of our time and the people must be heard, not criminalised."
Activists intend to continue with their demonstrations this week.
[Environment > Copenhagen Climate change conference 2009]
Copenhagen summit: How major blocs have fared and what they want
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 December 2009 19.20 GMT Article history
European Union
Last week: The EU ended the week with a bang, upping its offer of climate aid to poorer nations to €2.4bn a year from next month. But the bloc's trump card – an upgrade from a 20% to a 30% cut to its emissions by 2020 – remained unplayed. Despite the stir it caused, chief negotiator Artur Runge-Metzger said the "Danish text" was "just a piece of paper".
This week: The EU will certainly need to table the 30% offer if the talks are to progress. It will also have to calm the fears of eastern European countries fearful of the costs and soothe the egos of the leaders of the big nations who will want all of the glory of success (or none of the blame). Levies on international aviation and shipping, supported by some EU nations, may help.
US
Last week: The US delegation aimed to show it was serious about taking action to stop global warming, despite the uncertainty of getting a law through congress. But in comments on funding the fight against climate change chief negotiator Todd Stern lived up to his name: "I don't envision public funds, certainly not from the United States, going to China." He also said the US, the biggest carbon emitter in history, did not owe reparations.
This week: The US will fiercely fight off pressure to increase its offers on both emissions cuts and long-term funding. It will stress its 17% target by 2020 on 2005 levels is more than the EU's over the same period. It does seem poised to offer up to $1.5bn for immediate assistance to poor countries.
China
Last week: Vice foreign minister He Yafei ripped into Todd Stern. "I don't want to say the gentleman is ignorant. I think he lacks common sense or is extremely irresponsible". Earlier top climate negotiator Su Wei lambasted rich nations for offering an immediate fund of a mere $10bn a year for developing nations to deal with climate change.
This week: The Chinese delegation are desperate to finalise a document so prime minister Wen Jiabao can avoid being leaned on in a last-minute huddle. When that happened at a recent summit in Europe, Wen was so unhappy with the pressure being put on him to offer more on curbing emissions that he ended the meeting prematurely.
Rest of the world
Last week: The world's 6 billion poor, represented by the 133 countries in the G77 plus China group, the 42 LDCs (least developed countries) and the 47-strong Association of Small Island States (Aosis), began with three objectives: to defend the Kyoto protocol, the only legal treaty that requires developed countries to reduce their emissions; to make sure that rich countries reduce their emissions; and to secure around $400bn a year by 2020.
This week: There is still no long-term money on the table, and the chances of getting really ambitious emissions cut agreements from the rich are minimal. They appear to have won the immediate battle to save the Kyoto protocol, and the poorest and most forested countries could secure more money than others; but there are fears that the eventual cash on offer will not be guaranteed, will be conditional and not additional to existing aid.
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