Duties and freedoms
- Those attending a demonstration have rights - from the European Convention of Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 - such as freedom of expression (article 10), freedom of assembly (article 11), liberty and security (article 5) and privacy (article 8).
- The police have duties which include keeping the peace, protecting property and preventing and detecting crime. In the exercise of their duties, the police have powers to use reasonable force, to collect evidence, and to detain and arrest a suspect, for example. Their responsibilities include the requirement of wearing their identity badges at all times, and when conducting a search they must give their name and the name of the police station to which they are attached.
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This note was first published in the Morning Star on 25th March 2011, the day before the TUC anti-cuts demonstration in London