Union and leading campaigners condemn Cambridge Uni attempt to quash peaceful protest through the High Court

UCU said the move by Cambridge bosses was a shameful attack on basic democratic rights including freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and risked setting a repressive legal precedent which could be used to shut down peaceful protest at universities across the country.  

Liberty said injunctions and wider repression on campus show that universities are infringing on students' rights and creating a hostile space for those speaking up for social change. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign added that Cambridge was singling out Palestinian staff and students and those defending international law.  

In the University of Cambridge's claim at the High Court, it defines as the defendants anyone who "for a purpose connected with the Palestine-Israel conflict, without the claimant's consent"protests on or "slow[s] down" access to several central administrative and ceremonial university premises. Cambridge, moreover, has asked for the injunction to be in place until February 2030. 

UCU believes that Cambridge's claim and the breadth of its clauses risk criminalising non-disruptive peaceful protest in the centre of the city, for local residents as well as students and staff. 

This High Court claim by the University of Cambridge comes in the context of a wider crackdown on the right to protest, from both university managers and the state. A recent investigation by Liberty Investigatesand Sky Newsfound that since 7 October 2023 up to 113 students and staff across at least 28 universities have been placed under investigation for pro-Palestine protests, with at least nine universities having received briefings on protests from private intelligence and security outfits. 

Jo Grady, UCU General Secretary, said: ''This is a shameful attack on basic democratic rights from Cambridge bosses, and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms. In pleading with the High Court to restrict the ability of its students to peacefully protest against genocide, Cambridge is undermining the fundamental values of higher learning and making a mockery of its reputation as an open institution.   

"Worse, in its repressive legal move against freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, Cambridge risks setting a precedent which could be used to shut down peaceful protest at universities across the country."  

Ruth Ehrlich, Liberty Head of Policy and Campaigns, said:"In recent years, new laws have made it increasingly difficult for people to exercise their right to protest, and it's alarming that this crackdown is playing out on university campuses too. As these injunctions and recent findings from Liberty Investigates show, universities are infringing on students' rights by creating a hostile space for people simply trying to make their voices heard on an issue that matters to them.   
  
"Students have long been at the forefront of movements for social change. It's vital that their right to protest on campus is protected."  

 Ben Jamal, Palestine Solidarity Campaign Director, said: "The attempts by the University of Cambridge to prevent peaceful protests on campus in solidarity with Palestine represent a significant attack on democratic rights.  The University is trying to single out Palestinian staff and students and those speaking up for international law, and subject them to draconian restrictions that undermine the principles of freedom of expression and assembly that should be a cornerstone of university life."  

Clement Mouhot, Cambridge Professor of mathematical sciences, said:"This is nothing short of an all-out attack on freedom of expression and assembly, and the right to protest. Our students have been organising non-violent demonstrations for more than a year against the ongoing genocide in Gaza: their most "radical" demand has been a ceasefire as well as calling for an end to massacres of civilians and illegal occupation.  

"The claim by Cambridge managers that these peaceful protests are rejected by the university community is utterly false: on the contrary, thousands upon thousands of staff, students and alumni have signed open letters in support of their demands. I myself consider that students, in Cambridge and elsewhere, have been the moral conscience of the world by refusing to stay silent in the face of genocide."