At the first session of the Peoples Tribunal on Police Killings (PTPK) in London in April 2025 a commitment was made for international action. Now we are announcing the second session which will focus on police killings across Europe. The families of those killed by the police in many European countries will gather for the first time in an unprecedented way to unify radical struggles for justice. The colonial policing strategies of European nations and the use of extreme violence disproportionately impacts Black, Arab and migrant communities as well as the working class. This is increasingly happening in the context of the ascendancy of the far-right to political power and with an increase in attacks on our communities.
Historically we have witnessed repeated patterns of state sanctioned violence across Europe, in recent years we have seen an escalation of this violence as well as the use of strategies of impunity for police officers that kill. We have recorded failures in investigation systems, failures in judicial enquiries and a lack of political will to successfully prosecute police officers that are responsible for the killings of thousands of people across the continent. The charity industrial complex has failed in its reforms, now is the time for more revolutionary actions.
Families that struggle for justice have worked together in solidarity in the past, they have learned from each other and inspired each other. The PTPK is initiating new solidarities in the event which will be an opportunity for families including from France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, the north of Ireland and the UK to come together for the first time to launch international actions. The event will take testimonies from families and expert witnesses to an international panel in full public view. There will also be sessions to plan international strategies for communities of resistance to confront the waves of killing and torture by police forces. State violence has been used to control populations and to maintain capitalist domination of the working class. This gathering will take an anti-imperialist stance and link the struggles for justice to the global majority who we call on for support. We also declare allegiance to international calls to abolish and to defund the police.
PTPK European Action will build a sustained platform of unity and strength that will challenge the containment of our struggles and take international joint actions to bring justice where it has been absent for so long. A full joint declaration will be released after the event.
See here for more information on the PTPK: www.peoplestribunal.info
Email: tribunalpeoples@gmail.com
