Universal bans, detrimental to the human rights, amendments to legislation, the dismantling of peaceful assemblies and excessive police brutality, paint an alarming picture of the state of the the right to freedom of assembly in Greece at the time of the pandemic, as concluded in a recent report by the Amnesty International.
The cases documented in this report demonstrate that the Greek authorities have unlawfully interfered and failed to facilitate the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly by imposing blanket bans and dispersing peaceful assemblies, allegedly to protect public health from coronavirus.
In this effort, the police officers resorted to unnecessary and excessive use of force. A typical example is the popular reactions this winter to the Education Bill.
However, the cases examined by the organisation, mainly through testimonies, also highlight how police operations during the protests examined made things much worse, as demonstrators could no longer keep their distance from each other and reduce the risk of transmission of the virus.
The people who spoke to Amnesty International described how the police resorted to unnecessary and excessive use of water cannons and chemicals against peaceful demonstrators. Some said the police hit them in the head with batons and used flash-bang grenades in a way that could have caused serious injuries, including
hearing problems.
Indicatively, in 2019 and 2020, the Ombudsman, in his capacity as the National Mechanism for the Investigation of Arbitrariness Incidents (National Mechanism), received a total of 471 cases concerning acts or omissions by members of law enforcement forces and personnel in detention facilities.
ELAS and Golden Dawn
In some cases, women who gave testimonies said that they were victimized sexist and abusive language by the police and in one case, protesters said members of the law and order units said they were members of the far-right party Golden Dawn.
At a protest in Ioannina, some demonstrators said that police officers of the law and order units identified themselves as members of the far-right Golden Dawn party. In a landmark ruling in October 2020, a court found the party's political leadership guilty of running a criminal organisation.
Amnesty International's recommendations to government
Amnesty International makes a number of recommendations to the Greek authorities, including amending legislation and policies to regulate demonstrations to bring them into line with the country's international human rights commitments.
It is also necessary to end the criminalisation and cancel the fines imposed on peaceful protesters, lawyers, women's rights defenders and others who were arbitrarily arrested in November and December 2020.
The organisation also calls on the Greek authorities to stop characterising incidents of illegal use of violence as «isolated», to recognise the systematic nature of the phenomenon and to send a strong message that such incidents will not be tolerated. They should also ensure that all allegations of human rights violations by members of law enforcement forces, documented in this report, are promptly, impartially, independently and effectively investigated.
