21 International Legal Organisations Warn: Rule of Law in the UK Under Threat, Following pro-Palestinian Activists’ Arrests
London, 3rd June 2025: Twenty one international legal associations and human rights groups have today warned that the rule of law in the United Kingdom is under acute threat, after pro-Palestinian activists’ arrests under misused counter-terrorism laws.
A full copy of the letter is available at the end of this page.
The open letter, signed by groups representing lawyers across six continents, relates to the case of the ‘Filton 18’. These activists, associated with Palestine Action, are currently imprisoned following their direct-action protest at the Filton (Bristol) premises of Israeli military technology firm Elbit Systems. UK authorities claim that the alleged offences have a “terrorist connection”. In detaining, investigating, and prosecuting these activists, UK police may have violated specific and general rights of these activists, including their right to a fair trial.
Joining interventions in the case issued by four United Nations Special Rapporteurs and by Amnesty International UK, the letter states that “the Filton 18 case is a litmus test for democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights in the United Kingdom”. The activists’ mistreatment threatens to create a chilling effect against political protest, freedom of expression and opinion, and the rights to participate in public life, political and public discourse – protected under the UK’s Human Rights Act 1998, European Convention on Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Alarmingly, evidence from an April 2025 Freedom of Information request shows the UK Government sharing contact details for counter terrorism police with the Israeli Embassy during the Filton 18 investigation. This raises concerns as to whether Israeli Ambassadorial staff attempted to directly contact counter-terrorism police and the prosecuting authorities shortly after the activists’ arrests, as they did in August 2023, raising “serious questions around the independence and impartiality of prosecuting authorities in the Filton 18 case.”
The case of these activists, likewise, cannot be considered in isolation from the broader military collaboration between the UK and Israel, the letter states, with concerns that “the proceedings against the Filton 18, whose actions targeted quadcopter production and exports from the UK to Israel, are not being carried out in good faith and in an independent and impartial manner.”
The signatories have called upon the UK authorities to cease the misuse of anti-terrorism legislation against the Filton 18, to guarantee their right to a free trial, and to reform the UK’s “overly broad” terrorism legislation to prevent its use against those engaged in advocacy, dissent, protest, or industrial action.
The letter recalls an intervention of four United Nations Special Rapporteurs, who have criticised the United Kingdom’s use of “significant powers under counter-terrorism legislation despite the absence of a credible connection between the activists’ conduct to terrorism as properly defined”, and the attempt to circumvent procedural safeguards in relation to detention.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
- ICJP is a legal organisation based in London, working to uphold international law and defend the rights of Palestinians. For more information or for media inquiries, please contact the ICJP news desk at press@icjpalestine.com
- The United Nations Special Rapporteurs’ letter can be accessed in full, Ref. AL GBR 13/2024. See, also, Amnesty International’s statement of 1 May 2025 on X: https://x.com/AmnestyUK/status/1917961260429160765
- For information on the Israeli Embassy’s communications with prosecuting authorities, see The Guardian, 29th April 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/29/police-and-prosecutors-details-shared-with-israel-during-uk-protests-inquiry-papers-suggest
- Featured Image: Credit to Martin Pope Photographer, taken at London’s Old Bailey during arrests of supporters outside a hearing for the Filton 18