army barracks where outbreaks of Covid-19 account for every observed disparity”. The occurred.3 UN Working Group of Experts on People of FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY African Descent said the report “repackaged racist tropes and stereotypes into fact, In June, prosecutors decided not to twisting data and misapplying statistics and prosecute people who had participated in studies into conclusory findings”. Black Lives Matter protests in Belfast and The PCSC Bill contained provisions to Derry-Londonderry in June 2020. The Police extend the use of police stop-and-search Service of Northern Ireland also took steps to powers with newly proposed Serious Violence refund 72 fines for infringement of Covid-19 Reduction Orders and to criminalize “residing restrictions issued to the protesters. on land without consent in a vehicle”. A new The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts statutory duty to reduce serious violence Bill (the PCSC Bill) would drastically curtail would further empower police and ministers the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, to request information about individuals from including by expanding police powers to ban, public bodies, eroding existing safeguards on limit or impose undue restrictions on “noisy” data sharing. The government conceded that or “disruptive” protests, creating new these provisions were likely to impact Black offences of “locking on” and “being men and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller equipped for locking on”, and allowing courts communities disproportionately. to impose broad restrictions on individual In June, a police officer was found guilty of protesters. The bill also includes criminal the manslaughter of Dalian Atkinson, a Black penalties for people who unwittingly breach man, in 2016. The officer had fired a Taser at police-imposed conditions on protests and him for 33 seconds and kicked his head increases criminal penalties for organizers twice. Data released by the Independent 4 who disobey such conditions. More than Office for Police Conduct in August found 350 organizations condemned the proposals that Black people were Tasered with and thousands of people joined disproportionate frequency and more likely to demonstrations. be Tasered for prolonged periods by police. In March, police used unnecessary and RIGHT TO TRUTH, JUSTICE AND excessive force to disperse a vigil in the REPARATION capital, London, predominately attended by women, for Sarah Everard, who was raped In November, the Northern Ireland and murdered by a police officer. Police government agreed to establish an claimed that the gathering violated Covid-19- independent public inquiry, along with other related regulations. measures co-designed with survivors, into DISCRIMINATION “mother and baby homes”, Magdalene Laundries and work houses, which operated In February, a coalition of 17 organizations between 1922 and 1990. Many women and declared a boycott of the government’s review girls who became pregnant outside marriage of Prevent, its counter-radicalization strategy, were sent to these institutions and suffered after the appointment of William Shawcross arbitrary detention, forced labour, ill- as its chair despite his record of expressing treatment and the forced adoption of their Islamophobic views.5 babies.6 In March, the Commission on Race and In July, the government announced a plan Ethnic Disparities, appointed by the to address the legacy of the conflict in government after the 2020 Black Lives Northern Ireland. The plan included a statute Matter protests, published a report rejecting of limitations for all conflict-related incidents the existence of institutional racism in the UK and an end to all criminal, civil and coronial and arguing that there was a “repeated use judicial activity related to the period, and misapplication of the term ‘racism’ to Amnesty International Report 2021/22 388