Right to form social or political groups and hold meetings
"Sammankomsten" ("The Meeting"), oil painting byEster Almqvist, original at theSwedish National Museum. The painting was chosen by theUN as a motif for a stamp commemorating the establishment of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights, paragraph 20: the Right of Assembly.Janitorial workers striking in front of theMTV building inSanta Monica,California. Although striking in atrade union is a way of exercising freedom of assembly and freedom of association, other aspects of the conduct of the workers depicted here, such as pedestrian blocking of vehicle traffic in whichever direction has theright of way at this signal-controlled intersection, may violate local or state laws such as California Vehicle Code § 21950(b).[1]Posted excerpt from theUS Constitution, at anOccupy Oakland event, 2011
The termsfreedom of assembly andfreedom of association may be used to distinguish between the freedom to assemble in public places and the freedom to join an association. Freedom of assembly is often used in the context of theright to protest, while freedom of association is used in the context of labor rights. TheConstitution of the United States is interpreted to mean both the freedom to assemble and the freedom to join an association.[3]
^Jeremy McBride, Freedom of Association, in The Essentials of... Human Rights, Hodder Arnold, London, 2005, pp. 18–20
^See: NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 898 (1982); Healey v. James, 408 U.S. 169 (1972); Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia, 377 U.S. 1 (1964); United Mine Workers v. Illinois State Bar Assn., 389 U.S. 217 (1967).
