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People's Review of Prevent

The People's Review of Prevent

The People’s Review of Prevent is an alternative review to the Government Shawcross Review.

This review provides a voice to the people most impacted by the Prevent Duty.
Prevent is described as ‘safeguarding’ children from harms. However, under Prevent, safeguarding is focused on protecting the wider public from children believed to be ‘risky’, rather than protecting children from harms.

Throughout our report we present case studies that show how real these harms can be and the distress they cause to children and their families and carers.

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UN special rapporteur expresses serious concerns on UK’s counter-terrorism bill

The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin has expressed serious concerns about the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill that is currently being considered by parliament. In her submission Professor Ni Aoláin states that the bill risks criminalising a broad range of legitimate behaviour, including reporting by journalists. She highlights the importance of safeguarding freedom of expression and finds that parts of the bill fail to meet the UK’s obligations under international human rights law. Read more

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3 August 2018

British Muslims’ fear of Prevent is based on facts not perceptions

When Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, commissioned a report into Prevent in the wake of the suicide bombing in Manchester in May 2017, we, the co-founders of Advancing Voices of Women against Islamophobia (AVOW), welcomed it. Burnham had previously criticised Prevent, which is part of the British government’s counter-terrorism strategy. We never wanted to see a repeat of the attack on the Manchester Arena, during which 23 people were killed and 139 wounded, more than half of them children. Despite the suicide bomber Salman Abedi being highlighted to MI5, it was clear Prevent was not working well. The report, entitled A Shared Future, has just been released. It has found that there is a“genuine fear” that Prevent is targeting Muslims in Greater Manchester. This is uncontroversial. What we object to is the report’s elaboration on this, which is that the fear stems from a lack of information. This is wrong and

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3 August 2018

Pre-school teachers criticised for failing to spot signs of extremism and radicalisation

Staff at a pre-school in Hove have been criticised by government inspectors for failing to spot the early signs of radicalisation in its children aged two to five. Little Ducklings, which was previously given an ‘outstanding’ rating by Ofsted inspectors, has been told it now requires improvement. The new Ofsted report said the nursery ‘must ensure all staff use the information gained through training to improve their knowledge of the prevent duty and wider safeguarding issues’ by tomorrow in order to meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage and the Childcare Register. Read more

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3 August 2018

“Aaron-gate” – Prevent’s latest smearing of legitimate political dissent

A report on tackling ‘hateful extremism’ commissioned in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena attack has been caught up in a barrage of criticism entirely of its authors’ own making, after smearing anti-fracking campaigners and then admitting it made a “dreadful error”. The report, A Shared Future [, 1.2Mb] by the Greater Manchester Preventing Hateful Extremism and Promoting Social Cohesion Commission, included a case study of a 14 year old boy, “Aaron”, who it alleged ‘groomed’ by anti-fracking campaigners and therefore referred by his school to the Prevent “deradicalisation” programme, Channel, due to “concerns about his extreme beliefs in relation to the environment, specifically issues around fracking”. Read more

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3 August 2018

Prevent: Strong feelings that strategy ‘targets Muslim communities’

A “perpetuating cycle of lack of information” about a Government counter-terrorism strategy has led to “genuine fears” of persecution among Greater Manchester Muslims, a report has found. Although Prevent was “working well” in the region, a commission set up in the wake of last May’s Manchester Arena suicide bombing which killed 22 people said it was not getting its message across to communities where “high levels of distrust and suspicion of statutory agencies continues to exist”. Read more

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3 August 2018

Boy, 14, referred to anti-extremism scheme over fracking activism

A 14-year-old A* student was referred to the UK government’s anti-extremism programme following concerns he was being “groomed” for environmental activism by anti-frackers. Campaigners said that the decision to refer him to the Prevent programme was “incredibly alarming” and “offensive”. Read more

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3 August 2018

Muslims ‘genuinely fear’ being persecuted by Prevent due to lack of official information, report warns

Muslims “genuinely fear” being persecuted by the government’s controversial counterextremism strategy because of the lack of official information, a report has warned. Research commissioned in Manchester following last year’s bombing found that although Prevent does good work tackling all forms of radicalisation, poor communication has caused a “dangerous perpetuating cycle of fear” and made people less willing to engage with the voluntary scheme. Read more

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3 August 2018

Anti-terror Prevent strategy ‘fuelling community fears’

Muslims in Greater Manchester are living in fear of persecution according to a new report. The report was ordered by the city region mayor Andy Burnham in the wake of the Arena bombing. It found that lack of information about the Government’s ‘Prevent’ anti terror strategy was fuelling the fears. Read more

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3 August 2018
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