Police at Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow to get public order training | Cop26: Glasgow climate change conference 2021

Thousands of officials will receive public order training ahead of the Cop26 Summit in Glasgow in November, Scottish Police said.

Around 10,000 officials from across the UK are dispatched to the climate summit each day, making it one of the largest police operations ever carried out in the UK.

Leaders from around the world will gather in Glasgow to discuss fighting climate change and Police Scotland said it will take a human rights-based approach to monitor demonstrations during Cop26.

A senior official said the force had already partnered with protest groups to facilitate peaceful demonstrations.

Will Kerr, deputy chief of police for the local police force, said: “Police Scotland is a rights-based organization that puts our values ​​of integrity, fairness, respect and a commitment to human rights at the heart of everything we do.

“This means that we will protect the rights of people who protest peacefully at Cop26, or want to protest against it, balanced against the rights of the wider community.

“At the same time, those who want to protest have a legal responsibility to do so, and I want to remind the small minority of people who may want to cause violent disturbance or harm that we will deal with them quickly and vigorously.”

Quan Nguyen, the Scotland coordinator for the Cop26 Coalition, which organizes protests in Glasgow, across the UK and around the world, said: “Protest and dissent are vital to a healthy democracy.

“Without protest, there is no political will to act. The right to protest, freedom of assembly and freedom of expression are protected rights that the police are legally obliged to defend.

“People have to be able to challenge the most marginalized and least transparent cop who has ever been arrested, or we have no chance of fighting the deadly climate catastrophe.”