UK: UN recognises human rights violations in controversial 'Prevent' strategy

United Nations findings provide a damning assessment of racism in the UK

Amnesty calls for the Government to scrap Prevent when releasing its review in October

In response to recommendations to the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination the UN body has concluded today that there needs to be a suspension of the UK government’s controversial Prevent.

Amnesty has long campaigned for Prevent to be abolished due to the considerable evidence that Prevent has caused immense harm to minoritised and racialised communities over years, limiting and eroding their fundamental rights with little to no recourse to accountability and remedy.

The UK government will conclude its review of its counter-extremism strategy in October with an opportunity to chart a new path forward.

Ilyas Nagdee, Amnesty International UK’s Racial Justice Director, said:

“In concluding their review of the UK, the recommendations from the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination provide a damning assessment of the state of racism in the UK.

“We’re pleased that many of the recommendations on identified key areas mirror those we raised with the committee in Geneva last week.”

“It is a significant move for a UN body to call for the suspension of Prevent and highlight the policy’s negative impacts on Muslim communities - in particular children - and their ability to fully exercise their fundamental human rights, alongside the risks around how their personal information is stored and used.

“It is essential that there are prompt and effective remedies for people affected by Prevent which mirror the recommendations from our research into the human rights violations caused by the legislation.”

“Additionally, recommendations to prohibit strip-searches on children and repeal legislation that restricts the right to protest are all important findings, and echo calls made by many organisations during this process.

Prevent duty

As part of the Prevent strategy, schools, universities, hospitals, local authorities and other institutions are under a duty to refer individuals who are at risk of being “drawn into terrorism”." Their employees - including teachers, academics, doctors and counsellors - must watch out for the “signs” of potential radicalisation, which are based on the Extremism Risk Guidelines (ERG22+). These guidelines include factors such as “a need to redress injustice”," “the need for excitement, comradeship or adventure” and “over identification with a group, cause or ideology”." Prevent referrals are then assessed by local counter-terrorism police.

Findings and recommendations given by Amnesty and Runnymede to the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination included:

• Forty-seven per cent of children of colour are living in poverty, compared to 24% of white children.

• Police are 6.5 more likely to strip-search Black children, and 4.7 times more likely to strip-search Black adults, than their White counterparts.

• Under “Joint Enterprise” laws, Black people are 16 times more likely to be prosecuted, and Asian people four times more likely to be prosecuted.

• British Bangladeshi women are more than eight times more likely to be unemployed than White British women.

• Pakistani (23%) and Black (19%) people are at least twice as likely to be in insecure work compared to white people (9.6%).

• Women of colour are three times as likely as white men to be on zero-hour contracts.

• Religious hate crimes against Muslims or those perceived as Muslims constitute the largest proportion of hate crimes, at 44%. This is followed by 19% for Jewish people or those perceived as Jewish.

• Following October 2023, Islamophobic incidents rose by 600%, while 4,103 anti-Jewish hate incidents were recorded in 2023, two-thirds of which were after 7 October. 

• The presence of police officers in schools has increased, with 979 Safer Schools Officers operating in schools across Britain, 489 in London. These officers are deployed in schools with higher proportions of pupils of colour and working-class pupils.

• There is a 26-year difference in life expectancy between white people and people of colour with profound and multiple learning disabilities. 

• The health of White British women in their 80s is equivalent to that of Black Caribbean and Indian women in their 70s, and Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in their 50s.

• Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people have 10-25 years’ shorter life expectancies than the general population.

• People of colour who rent their homes are 87% more likely to have experienced illegal acts from their landlord than White British or Irish renters, and 22% more likely to suffer damp or mould in their housing.

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The joint submissions recommendations included:

• Abolish the two-child limit benefit cap.

• Scrap the Prevent Duty.

• Prohibit in law and in practice the use of strip-searches on children.

• Scrap the Serious Violence Reduction Order pilot.

• Repeal harmful legislation for racialised communities, including the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (2022), Public Order Act (2023), Elections Act (2022) and Section 10 of the Nationality and Borders Act (2022).

• Explicitly recognise and incorporate the right to housing as a human right in domestic law, policy and practice.

• Ensure the right to just and favourable conditions of work, including remuneration that allows for a decent living for workers and their families, by addressing income precarity and requiring employers to provide greater employment security for workers by scrapping zero-hours contracts.

• Ban the use of rap and other music in prosecutions.

The full report from Amnesty and Runnymede can be found here

ENDS