Prevent Watch

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.

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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