Why is the UN speaking up for two jailed Just Stop Oil activists?

We shouldn’t be surprised that Ian Fry, the United Nations’ rapporteur for climate change and human rights, has waded in on the jail terms handed to Just Stop Oil (JSO) activists. The UN has a growing habit of muscling in and trying to micromanage states’ internal affairs, especially in cases where there’s a progressive point to be made.

Fry said he was ‘particularly concerned’ about the sentences received by the two activists who scaled the M25 bridge over the Thames at Dartford last year. Marcus Decker and Morgan Trowland were convicted of causing a public nuisance, with Decker imprisoned for two years and seven months and Trowland for three years. Fry said the punishments were ‘significantly more severe than previous sentences imposed for this type of offending in the past’. That may be the case, but is it really his place to say so? Motorists left stuck in their cars for hours might well think differently. The pair were up there for 40 hours, having climbed on the bridge’s towers.