ACLU, Hawai'i Officials Reach Agreement to Allow Asian Development Bank Protests to Continue

HONOLULU – The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai’i and local officials reached an agreement in federal court today that will allow protesters to use a portion of the promenade behind the Hawai’i Convention Center to demonstrate during the Asian Development Bank (ADB) meetings next week.

“This agreement is a victory for everyone in Hawai’i,” said Brent White, Legal Director of the ACLU of Hawai’i. “The goal, all along, has been to ensure that peaceful protests will be allowed during the Asian Development Bank meetings.”

In addition to allowing protestors to demonstrate at the Hawai’i Convention Center, city and state officials have also agreed to issue a permit for the protestors to march, distribute materials and attempt to engage in conversations with ADB meeting attendees.

Today’s agreement follows a lawsuit filed last week by the ACLU, asking that city and state officials be prevented from enforcing regulations that would prevent protesters from exercising their First Amendment right to peaceful protest outside the ADB meetings.

The ACLU said that local officials over the past several weeks had been preparing for a heavy-handed crackdown on protestors during the ADB meetings in hopes of avoiding the kind of demonstrations between anti-globalization and law enforcement that occurred in Seattle and Quebec City.

The ACLU, in cooperation with the law firm of Davis Levin Livingston Grande filed the lawsuit against the city and state on behalf of the Hawai’i Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, ADB Watch, International Longshore and Warehouse Union 142 Hawai’i and community activists Rev. Renate Rose and Matt MacKenzie.