‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ is up for six Oscars at the Academy Awards, to be announced on 25 April. The film, which dramatises the trial of seven social activists who opposed the Vietnam War, sheds light on key issues about the right to protest. It has particular resonance today – as is shown by the fact it is reportedly one of Netflix’s most watched movies – when mass mobilisation is increasingly common across the globe.
The 1960s, like today, were marked by peaceful protests, sit-ins and strikes, in the United States and around the world. A youth-led counterculture embraced the civil rights movement and called for an end to the Vietnam War.
In 1968, seven activists led an anti-Vietnam protest in Chicago to coincide with the Democratic National Convention. The film follows the trial of the seven defendants, who were charged with conspiracy and inciting riots after violence erupted during the protest. As the charges against the seven are laid out, the audience becomes aware of various laws and standards that regulated protest in the United States at the time.
With the #BlackLivesMatter protests and other mass movements driving change and defining our time, how has international law changed since then? What do protest rights look like now?
The film cites protest restrictions that have all been thoroughly addressed in the present day. Most recently, the Human Rights Committee, a group of independent experts who interpret the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, added a General Comment on the right to peaceful assembly and association. This broadens the scope of the right to protest and acts as a guiding principle to the 172 states that have ratified the convention.
In the film, three main restrictions to the right to peaceful assembly are raised during the trial. Compare then and now, and it’s clear there have been many changes in international law by means of the General Comment.
The need for permits
The film sees the seven activists accused of not having received the necessary permit for their protest. While many countries still require protesters to acquire permits, contemporary international law is clear: permission is not required. Peaceful assembly is a basic right that should always be recognised.
What’s more, in the film, the protest leaders’ application for permission to be within ‘sight and sound’ of the Democratic convention is denied, and the protest takes place blocks away from their targeted audience. General Comment No.37, issued in July last year, says “given the typically expressive nature of assemblies, participants must as far as possible be enabled to conduct assemblies within sight and sound of their target audience.” This broadening of the right to protest allows demonstrators to properly convey their message.
