Marcus Decker
 Marcus Decker  (activist) | |
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Marcus Decker is an environmental activist who made history in October 2022 with fellow campaigner Morgan Trowland in one of the most dramatic climate protest events to press for an end to further fossil fuel exploration and for urgent action to tackle global warming.
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QEII Bridge protest
At 3am on 17 October 2022, Marcus Decker and Morgan Trowland scaled 60 metres (200ft) up the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge in Dartford, Kent, sitting astride the cables of the bridge struts to inch their way to the top before releasing a Just Stop Oil banner. Decker and Trowland remained in place in hammocks for almost 40 hours before being removed by police.
Conviction
The eye-catching protest by Marcus Decker and Morgan Trowland received a similarly dramatic response after they were convicted by a jury at Southend Crown Court of causing a public nuisance. Decker was imprisoned for two years and seven months and Trowland for three years. Passing down the longest sentences in UK history for non-violent direct action, Judge Shane Collery said he wanted to deter others from copycat actions. The men, he said, had caused a very important road to be closed, and disrupted travel for many tens of thousands of people. The Judge looked at the press gallery as he said to both of them
"You plainly believed you knew better than everyone else … In short, to hell with everyone else."[1]
Criticism by UN rapporteur
Long sentences handed to two Just Stop Oil protesters for scaling the M25 bridge over the Thames are a potential breach of international law and risk silencing public concerns about the environment, a UN expert has said.
In a strongly worded intervention, Ian Fry, the UN’s rapporteur for climate change and human rights, said he was “particularly concerned” about the sentences, which were “significantly more severe than previous sentences imposed for this type of offending in the past”.
- “I am gravely concerned about the potential flow-on effect that the severity of the sentences could have on civil society and the work of activists, expressing concerns about the triple planetary crisis and, in particular, the impacts of climate change on human rights and on future generations.”
- Noting Decker and Trowland’s rights to peaceful protest, Fry asked the UK government to explain “why, in light of the current climate crisis, it was necessary to introduce and pass the Public Order Act and how both the Public Order Act and the sentencing of Mr Decker and Mr Trowland are compatible with international norms and standards”, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
- He demanded ministers indicate “what steps have been taken … to ensure that non–governmental organisations, civil society organisations and all human rights defenders can carry out their peaceful work free from threat, violence, harassment or retaliation or any sort”.[2]
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:High-stakes fight for one tree comes to an autumnal crunch | Article | 19 November 2023 | Tim Adams | "If insurers are allowed to succeed here it will threaten many thousands of trees across the country", says barrister Paul Powlesland. "The fact is we all have a stake in Haringey's Oakfield plane – as long as it still stands." |
