A consensus appeared to take shape in parliament on Monday over amendments to a law regulating public gatherings and parades, which critics have called draconian.

The law had been passed in July, but got immediate pushback from opposition Akel.

MP Irene Charalambides led the charge, requesting an opinion on the law from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In September, the OSCE delivered its report, where it called many of the law’s provisions arbitrary, warning of a chilling effect on the right to peaceably assemble.

Based on OSCE’s opinion, Charalambides then drafted a bill of her own with major amendments to the existing law. Meanwhile, the justice ministry is preparing an amending bill of its own.

At the House legal affairs committee on Monday, it transpired that the two amending bills have a significant overlap.

Law Commissioner Sofia Kleopa-Hadjikyriacou calculated the overlap at about 70 per cent.

Similar sentiments were expressed by a University of Cyprus expert consulted by both the justice ministry and Charalambides. According to Aristoteles Constantinides, associate professor of international law and human rights, any divergences between the two bills are “secondary”.

An official from the attorney-general’s office – representing the government – likewise opined that Akel’s amending bill is “headed in the right direction”.

For their part, the police said they would go along with whatever the justice ministry decides.

A representative of the police’s Isotita union did note, however, that they do not regard the current law as problematic.

Since July, when the law was enacted, some 50 demonstrations have taken place.

“We refused no one [to organise a gathering],” the union rep said. “We had a problem in only one case, but that wasn’t because of the law.”

Charalambides said she was pleasantly surprised with the justice ministry’s stance.

She hoped that her bill would go to the House plenum for a vote early next year.

Elam MP Sotiris Ioannou asked the police to furnish data on the public gatherings held since July, along with any problems occurring during these events. The police said they’d get back with the information.

According to the OSCE, aspects of the law give authorities excessively discretionary, even arbitrary, powers to break up demonstrations while placing disproportionate sanctions on event organisers and participants.

The OSCE report highlighted, for example, the broad discretionary powers vested in the chief of police to order the breakup of a public gathering.

It suggested that Cypriot authorities should recognise “that some level of disruption is inherent to public gatherings and that isolated acts of violence by individuals should not render an entire assembly as non-peaceful within the context of the law.”

The dispersal of an assembly “should always be a measure of last resort,” the OSCE stressed.

Another concern was that the law “does not establish accountability mechanisms for police actions, nor does it provide avenues for legal redress in cases where such actions lack a basis in law or are unnecessary or disproportionate”.

Regarding the sanctions envisaged in the law, the OSCE called these disproportionate.

“Disproportionate penalties alone violate the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, as they may deter such events and have a chilling effect on the exercise of this right.”

The law established two criminal offences related to public assemblies and parades.

First, it criminalises any act of violence or incitement to violence intended to disrupt the peaceful nature of an assembly, punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to €10,000, or both.

Second, it penalises individuals who, without reasonable cause, refuse to comply with a police order to remove items concealing their identity, where such refusal is linked to actions that may render the assembly non-peaceful or lead to an offence. This offence carries a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to €5,000, or both, upon conviction.