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Racism

The lens of Prevent is racist and Islamophobic, however these articles cover its racism, as well as racism more broadly as it facilitates counter-extremism.

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CategoriesStatements Latest News

PRESS RELEASE: UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination grades UK response on Prevent ‘unsatisfactory’

London – The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has formally assessed the UK Government’s response to its 2024 recommendations on the Prevent duty as “unsatisfactory”, in a letter [1] to the UK Government dated 26 August 2026 and published today by Prevent Watch. In August 2024 [2], the Committee recommended that the UK suspend the Prevent duty, adopt safeguards against profiling and discrimination, and establish independent monitoring and remedies for those affected. Reviewing the Government’s one-year progress report, the Committee regrets “the lack of detailed information on the concrete measures adopted by the State Party to revise the CONTEST and Prevent counter-terrorism strategies, including the Prevent duty, with a view to eliminating any discriminatory and disproportionate impact”. On the two bodies the Government presents as safeguards, the Home Office’s Standards and Compliance Unit and the Independent Prevent Commissioner, the Committee finds that “their mandate is primarily […]

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picture of the united nations headquarters in geneva for a story on reparations for uk prevent duty CategoriesLatest Expert Views Community Expert View Education Expert View Our Expert Views

UN racial discrimination committee grades UK progress on Prevent ‘unsatisfactory’

Two years ago, on 23 August 2024, the UN’s racial discrimination committee urged the UK to suspend the Prevent duty. Civil society organisations and independent experts had been saying for a decade that Prevent was discriminatory and not fit for purpose. But this time the verdict came from the body the UK agreed to answer to when it signed the UN’s racial discrimination treaty in 1966. Prevent Watch was one of eight organisations that had submitted evidence to the Committee ahead of its conclusions. One of our clients, a mother whose child had been referred by their school, flew to Geneva to tell the Committee in person what harm that referral had done to her family. The UK government had a year to respond. When it filed its reply in September 2025, it did not engage with the substance of what the UN Committee had found. It answered different questions […]

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Cloisters logo for prevent referral case CategoriesLatest News Our Cases in the News

Court finds direct discrimination in school’s Prevent referral of Muslim boy

Prevent Watch supported the mother in a stressful period during this case in which Cloisters’ Fred Holker successfully represented the Claimant who, at the age of 13, was the subject of a Prevent referral by a teacher following a playground incident. Fred acted for the Claimant pro bono at trial in the County Court against the education trust, securing findings of direct religion discrimination contrary to ss 10 and 13 Equality Act 2010. The successful claim had been pleaded by Cloisters’ Ameer Ismail, also on a pro bono basis. The Claimant was accused of playground misbehaviour in 2021 which led teachers to form a concern of possible Islamist radicalisation. The Court analysed the manner in which the referral was made, concluding that the teacher had cast the Claimant in terms suffused with religious and violent overtones that went beyond the facts established by an internal investigation. The Court found that […]

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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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picture of secondary school class in story about birmingham trojan horse affair racism and prevent duty uk CategoriesLatest Expert Views

‘Fear of being called racist’ and the Birmingham Trojan Horse Affair: The Racist Politics of Muslim Integration

The “fear of being called racist” during the Birmingham Trojan Horse Affair did not stop the DfE acting by introducing the Prevent duty in 2015. Around the same time, the first reports on group-based sexual exploitation of children were received by the DfE – and it failed to act. Now, a “fear of being called racist” is being used as their excuse – does this fear even exist, or are deeper racist politics at play? There has been a steady drumbeat, in right-wing and liberal media alike, about the failure of British Muslims to integrate. This drumbeat warns of self-segregated lives insulated from mainstream values. This is often fed by official reports that are occasioned by media ‘scares’ and used to align public policy with media-driven concerns highlighting threats to public safety. Among the most potent of such concerns are those involving children and young people. On the one hand, […]

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CategoriesLatest Expert Views Previous Events

Prevent Watch reports back from Northern Race Equality Conference

On the 9th of April Prevent Watch was invited by Race Equality Network and Ella Baker School to deliver a workshop at the Northern Race Equality Conference held in Bradford. The event brought together a wide range of organisations, academics, and practitioners committed to addressing structural racism across the UK. Prevent policy reinforces structural racism The inclusion of Prevent in this forum reflected a growing consensus that the Prevent duty has entrenched racial inequality in public services. The fact that this conference was held in the North of England is of particular relevance given the long history of anti-racist organising in the region, from community resistance to the National Front in the 1970s and 80s, to the landmark Bradford 12 trial in 1982, when a group of young Asian men were acquitted of preparing petrol bombs in self-defence against racist violence. Northern cities like Bradford, Manchester and Sheffield, which are […]

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CategoriesCommunity Resources Statements

Our submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Our final submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) can be found on the official submission site here. It outlines how the Prevent counter-extremism strategy violates the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 2106, and urges the UN to recommend that the UK government withdraw Prevent from the sectors of education and health. Together with our client testimonies, this document contributed to the CERD recommending that the UK government suspend Prevent. The Word.doc format as it was sent to the CERD in 2024 can be downloaded it by clicking the link below. Prevent Watch Final Submission to the CERD

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CategoriesLatest News

Sec Ed: Is the Prevent duty in education fit for purpose?

The long-term presence of the Prevent duty in education in the UK has meant that there has been an increase of 16% for referrals of young people and children, year-on-year, but disturbing cases of students being persecuted for legitimate protest or making flippant remarks raise fears that deep prejudice has infected the government’s anti-terrorism strategy, writes Peter Radford.

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