A coalition of leading civil society organisations has urged the Labour government to overhaul UK counter-extremism policies including the controversial Prevent programme, Middle East Eye can exclusively report.
In a letter sent to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, the organisations also called for the suspension of a new definition of extremism proposed in March by then-communities minister Michael Gove under the previous Conservative government.
Signatories of the letter included Prevent Watch, Amnesty International, Liberty, Medact, Rights & Security International and The Runnymede Trust.
It comes after Cooper recently commissioned a new review of the UK’s counter-extremism strategy and following a significant United Nations report last month which criticised the UK’s counter-terrorism policies and called for the suspension of Prevent, as well as advocating reparations for people abused under it.
The letter calls for a reversal of the most radical and far-reaching changes introduced by the previous government, and a reconsideration of the conclusions of Willliam Shawcross’s contentious review of Prevent last year which was widely rejected as flawed and partisan by civil society organisations.
Read more on The Middle East Eye.
Related…
Read a summary of the joint letter (News, 2024)
