Purpose
- Understanding ways how the criminalization of solidarity operates through state and judicial practices
- Sharpening personal lenses to recognize state and police violence
- Reading legal texts with confidence and disrupting the inaccessibility of legalese
Method: Discussion
(in a human rights organization, in a classroom, at a coffee shop, round table, workshop, conference…) based on the analysis of a court ruling
Time: 90 minutes and possibly more
Materials
- A court ruling
- Aliens Act
- video of Are You Syrious’s reaction at the European Parliament
Guiding Questions for Analysis
Questions of Comprehension
- What are the facts entailed in this ruling?
- How this ruling relates to the Aliens Act and its provision on the criminalization of solidarity?
- What is hidden in the ruling? What can we not read here? (personal motivation of Dragan, for instance)
Critical Questions
- Why does the Aliens Act not protect Dragan UmiΔeviΔ? What kind of message are the courts delivering with this ruling?
- How does the criminalization of solidarity look like in this particular case? What are the consequences Dragan and Are you Syrious must bare?
- Why is the criminalization of solidarity harmful broadly and not just for Dragan and Are You Syrious?
- What are the ways to stand against such criminalization?
- What are the ways that more groups and individuals can act similarly to Dragan and support migrants on their perilous journeys?