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We work to tackle human rights breaches as a result of Prevent in education, including in schools and tertiary institutes. Here you’ll find cases, our expert views and resources that could protect you and your children.

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Safeguarding not Securitisation educators resource on the Prevent Duty CategoriesKnow Your Rights Community Resources Education Resources Know Your Rights

Educator’s Resource on Prevent: Safeguarding not Securitisation

Prevent Watch, in collaboration with Amnesty UK and Liberty, have put together a valuable resource for educators on the Prevent Duty entitled ‘Safeguarding not Securitisation’. The 28-page booklet was put together after feedback from educators who wanted to know what their rights were in relation to Prevent, and who had become aware of the dangers of relying on ‘gut instinct’ in referrals, specifically when it comes to students. The current government and school guidance on Prevent do not take these harms into account, nor do they provide guidance on how to navigate Prevent while protecting students’ and teachers’ rights. This has left educators in the difficult situation of having to navigate Prevent as a statutory duty, and default to the Prevent Duty as a safeguarding protocol, while being increasingly aware that it violates many of the core principles of safeguarding and can infringe on several key rights. The booklet debunks […]

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Piles of folders for article on Fulford Inquiry CategoriesLatest Expert Views Community Expert View Education Expert View Health Expert View Our Expert Views

Southport Inquiry highlights how Prevent deprofessionalises public services

The Southport Inquiry embodies our warning that the Prevent duty has created conditions in which teachers, social workers and other frontline professionals are increasingly unable to act on their own expertise, and are required to defer to a counter-terrorism framework, writes Dr Layla Aitlhadj. In January of 2025, then Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced there would be a public inquiry into the Southport attack that took the lives of 3 young girls, injured many more and left their families and the nation in grief. Following the trial of the perpetrator, Axel Rudukubana, it had become public knowledge that he had been known to several agencies and referred to Prevent three times. The inquiry was described by the Home Secretary as a way to “get to the truth of what happened and what needs to change”. The next day Prime Minister Keir Starmer re-emphasised the fact that the perpetrator had been […]

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Picture of adolescent male under spotlight for article on autistic boy on UK Channel programme CategoriesOur Cases Library Education Case Study Health Case Study

‘None of what he was doing and saying had anything to do with becoming a terrorist’ – mum of autistic teen who passed through Channel programme speaks

At the point of involvement in the Channel programme, since my son had been referred to Prevent, this fundamentally altered how professionals viewed him, and it had real consequences for how they interpreted and responded to risk, vulnerability, and identity – the whole process was punitive and did not do justice to my autistic son.  I wanted to share my son’s story to show how Prevent and Channel processes can fail to meet the needs of neurodivergent children, and how they can misinterpret autistic traits such as hyperfocus, imitation, and social vulnerability as ideological commitment, especially when it comes to adolescence and digitally mediated environments. We engaged with Prevent and Channel in good faith and I hope his story informs more proportionate, neurodiversity-informed practice. I do not dispute the importance of safeguarding or responding to genuine risks of extremism. My son Luke* has had difficulties from nursery age. He was first diagnosed […]

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Prevent duty in Scotland CategoriesLatest Expert Views Community Expert View Education Expert View Health Expert View Our Expert Views

How is the Prevent duty in Scotland implemented and who is standing against it?

Legal guidance compels the Prevent duty in Scotland so public authorities must implement the policy. A closer look at key differences in their approach provides insights for action and directs us to the organisations resisting the Prevent duty in Scotland. By Zara W. Tahir National security, and by extension, counter terrorism, remains a reserved matter in Scotland, and therefore under Westminster control.  However, one arm of the counter-terorrism strategy, the Prevent duty, requires the cooperation of public institutions north of the border, many of which are devolved.  This tension between reserved and devolved powers has led to key differences in how the Prevent duty is implemented in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK, particularly England. Scottish MPs voice concerns with Prevent  In 2015, the Counterterrorism and Security Act was debated for five days in the UK Parliament. MPs raised concerns about its application in Scotland; these criticisms of the […]

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Picture of high school students for Prevent duty in education CategoriesLatest Expert Views Community Expert View Education Expert View Our Expert Views

Challenging the Prevent duty in securitised schools

Our recent webinar explored the Prevent duty in securitised schools, the recent aspects that further strengthen Prevent and what Prevent Watch can do to challenge referrals.  By Mariam A Schools in the UK have increasingly become sites of securitisation, rather than safe places for learning and free expression. One of several changes that has facilitated this in the last decade is the introduction of Prevent – part of the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST – as a statutory duty for educators. This presence of the Prevent duty in education has contributed to the increased security and surveillance in classrooms, which has been flagged as a concern by several human rights groups as well as the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education. These concerns are shared by Prevent Watch. In our recent webinar, we explored how Prevent has contributed to […]

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Picture of fried chicken for a story criticizing the Prevent strategy in the UK and Channel deradicalisation for children with unmet mental health needs CategoriesLatest Expert Views Education Expert View Health Expert View Our Expert Views

Why the Channel programme linked to the Prevent strategy is the junk food of public safety

In 2005, when Jamie Oliver exposed what really went into chicken nuggets on his School Dinners series, parents were horrified. What they thought was a proper hot meal turned out to be processed scraps, stripped of nutrition and bulked out with additives. The same reaction should meet the Channel programme. Promoted as safeguarding against radicalisation, it is in reality a highly processed product: stripped of genuine social care and support, repackaged with the additives of counter-terrorism, and sold back to us as if it were the nourishment required for a healthy society. According to the Home Office statistics, 5,014 individuals have been referred to Channel for ‘de-radicalisation’ since 2015. A Channel intervention is linked to the Prevent strategy in the UK. Out of a total number (58,127) of Prevent referrals as a result of the strategy, just 8.6% are deemed to be at risk of ‘radicalisation’ and deemed suitable for […]

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CRIN report counter terrorism and children's rights CategoriesEducation Resources Community Resources Reports

CRIN: To Protect or Punish? Children, counter-terrorism and the criminal justice system

CRIN’s latest report shows how all stages of the UK’s counter-terrorism system threaten children’s rights in chilling ways. From pre-criminal, to pre-trial, to trial and sentencing, we need reforms and approaches that genuinely protect children. CRIN has long held concerns over the growth of counter-terrorism strategies and its impact on children’s rights in the UK. Having previously examined the effects of the Prevent strategy on children, this report follows the journey a child might make through the criminal justice system. What happens if a child is accused of counter-terrorism? What determines if a child is brought to a Youth or a Criminal court? How can children be drawn into counter-terrorist policing without committing a criminal act? Our report begins in the pre-criminal space by considering the impact of stop and search practices under counter-terrorism, the Prevent programme and the challenges of counter-terrorist law in digital spaces. It continues into pre-trial […]

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Picture for article on pre-crime policies of a man wearing a Muslim energy shirt CategoriesLatest Expert Views Community Expert View Education Expert View Our Expert Views

Like Prevent, pre-crime policies used in the past created the notion of ‘thought crime’

Pre-crime policies in Japan and Russia prior to World War 2 reveal uncanny similarities to the UK’s Prevent strategy and relied on the same social elements to be acceptable.  By Zara W. Tahir The Prevent strategy has often been referred to as a ‘pre-crime’ strategy. Pre-crime is defined as a grey area where a crime has not yet occurred, and yet is implicitly understood to possibly occur. Its origins lie in science fiction. A study by Lucia Zedner at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies states that pre-crime, “… has a tendency to validate developments that ought properly to be subject to intense debate. It licences changes in procedural arrangements, as well as in substantive law, that erode civil liberties and permit intrusive coercive measures to be imposed ahead of wrongdoing.” People express surprise that such a policy has arisen in the UK. But Prevent is not without precedent […]

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CategoriesCommunity Case Study Education Case Study Our Cases Library

Father shares advice on getting son’s data deleted after Prevent referral is closed

It has been just over a year since my 10-year-old son was reported to Prevent for an essay he wrote on Palestine. After the referral was deemed to have been unnecessary, it has taken us this long to confirm that his data has been removed from all but one security-related database. To be honest, I don’t think the headmaster and teachers realised the full impact of Prevent and just how much would be involved and the impact it would have on us and our son. I remember the headmaster clearly saying that it was the first time that he had ever encountered this issue, and so I think from his perspective, he was just trying to do it by the book. But we now know that the local Prevent team had simply advised him to go ahead and make the Prevent referral.  Since then, he has been making much more […]

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RSI new logo 2025 CategoriesEducation Resources Health Resources Statements

RSI: New documents show incoherent government approach to autism and other Prevent monitoring

New government documents obtained by Rights & Security International (RSI) in relation to Prevent monitoring show what they believe is an incoherent and underinformed approach among officials toward the referral of autistic people to the Prevent and Channel counter-terrorism programmes. RSI states that these documents also point to incoherent and, in their view, careless approaches to assessing Prevent’s other equality impacts, particularly where race and religion are concerned. These deeply flawed practices showing a seeming indifference to potential ableism, racism, Islamophobia and other discrimination have persisted for years. RSI obtained a report on Channel and autism that the Home Office commissioned from a market research firm then known as Ipsos MORI (now Ipsos) and that was completed in 2021. It also obtained three EIAs from 2023 that pertain to Prevent, Channel, and the Home Offices response to an external review of Prevent completed by Sir William Shawcross in February 2023. […]

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