Legal observers are individuals, usually representatives of civilian

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

agencies, who attend public demonstrations,

protest A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...

s and other activities where there is a potential for conflict between the public or activists and the

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

security guard A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) from a variety ...

s, or other law enforcement personnel. The purpose of legal observers is to monitor, record, and report on any unlawful or improper behaviour. Legal or human rights observers act as an independent third party within a conflictual civil protest context, observing police behaviour in order to keep police accountable for their actions. Legal observers can write

incident report In a health care facility, such as a hospital, nursing home, or assisted living, an incident report or accident report is a form that is filled out in order to record details of an unusual event that occurs at the facility, such as an injury to a ...

s describing police violence and misbehaviour and compile reports after the event. The use of video and still cameras, incident reports and audio recorders is common.

History

It is thought that the concept of using legal observers first emerged during protests in the 1930s in the

East End of London The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

, where police

agents provocateur An agent provocateur () is a person who commits, or who acts to entice another person to commit, an illegal or rash act or falsely implicate them in partaking in an illegal act, so as to ruin the reputation of, or entice legal action against, the ...

were used during protests by the

British Union of Fascists The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, fo ...

(BUF). There were large counter-protests and it was alleged that the police sided with the BUF. Another case of legal observing was that carried out by the

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. New ...

in the United States. Legal observers were used by

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

(then known as the National Council for Civil Liberties) in

Wapping Wapping () is a district in East London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Wapping's position, on the north bank of the River Thames, has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, during the mid-1980s. The Wapping demonstration was in response to large protests by labour unions against the industrial relations policies of media magnate

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

. In the United States, the

National Lawyers Guild The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a progressive public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States. The group was founded in 193 ...

(NLG) holds registered trademarks for the words "legal observer" alone, as well as the words "legal observer" on a green background. The National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer certification program was established in 1968 in New York City in response to protests at Columbia University and citywide antiwar and civil rights demonstrations. That same year, guild students organized for the defense of people swept up in mass arrests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The NLG Legal Observer certification program requires legal observers to take a training course and is part of a comprehensive system of legal support designed to enable people to express their political views as fully as possible without unconstitutional disruption or interference by the police and with the fewest possible consequences from the criminal justice system. Legal observers are trained and directed by National Lawyer Guild attorneys. The presence of legal observers may serve as a deterrent to unconstitutional behavior by law enforcement during a demonstration. NLG worked with the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, the

Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) is a non-profit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, US, that seeks to accompany the people of Haiti in their nonviolent struggle for the consolidation of constitutional democracy, jus ...

, and the

International Association of Democratic Lawyers International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) is an international organization of left-wing and progressive jurists' associations with sections and members in 50 countries and territories. Along with facilitating contact and exchange of vi ...

to debut legal observers in Haiti during

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. T ...

protests of 2018. In other countries, legal observers are associated with such groups as

(UK), Green and Black Cross (UK), the

G8 Legal Collective The Group of Eight (G8) was an inter-governmental political forum from 1997 until 2014. It had formed from incorporating Russia into the Group of Seven, or G7, and returned to its previous name after Russia left in 2014. The forum originated ...

(Scotland), and others. In Australia in the 1970s, priests acted as legal observers during the large

Moratorium Marches Moratorium (from Late Latin ''morātōrium'', neuter of ''morātōrius'', "delaying"), may refer to: Law *Moratorium (law), a delay or suspension of an activity or a law Music *"Moratorium", a song by Alanis Morissette on her album ''Flavors of E ...

against the Vietnam War. In September 2000, Pt'chang Nonviolent Community Safety Group organised a large legal observer team for the S11 protest against the World Economic Forum in Melbourne. A decade later, during the

Occupy movement The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and econo ...

, an ongoing group of legal observer teams was established, that would go on to be called ''Melbourne Activist Legal Support'', observing actions throughout Melbourne. In Sydney, the Legal Observers Project, formally based at the Community Law Centre at the

University of Technology An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...

, Sydney, and renamed Human Rights Monitors, was established in April 2001. This group reformed as Sydney Copwatch in 2009. Human rights organizations such as

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

sometimes dispatch human rights observers who serve similar roles to legal observers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legal Observer Civil rights and liberties Law enforcement Protests

History

See also

References