THURSDAY 5 MARCH 2020Anti-terror programme
‘violates human rights’
LIZZIE DEARDEN
SECURITY CORRESPONDENT
Britain’s controversial counter-extremism programme violates human rights, a United Nations expert has
said. A report issued yesterday suggested that Prevent should be scrapped in its current form, because it
targets ill-defined “extremism” as well as violence and terrorism.
The special rapporteur, Fionnuala Ni Aolain, expressed concern over the duty placed on teachers, social
workers, NHS staff and others to report signs of radicalisation. “The negative impact cannot be overstated,”
the report said, saying the measures broke the “fragile trust” between communities and public services.
Professor Ni Aolain said the Prevent duty led to “over-selection and over-reporting” on discriminatory
grounds, following years of allegations that Muslims were being disproportionately targeted. She said it has
“an impact on the rights to freedom of religion and expression and privacy”, without proper transparency
about how information was used and shared across government.
Campaigners have raised concern that Prevent is threatening free speech in schools and universities, and
causing the criminalisation of religious beliefs. Ms Ni Aolain, the UN special rapporteur on the protection
and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, said that all states
should repeal any laws, programmes or practices that regulate “extremism”.
“They have no purchase in international law, and domestic law must comply with the principles of legality,
necessity and proportionality,” she added. “Prevention is an important and necessary tool but it will only be
effective when it is practised in a way that protects and affirms rights.”
Ms Ni Aolain argued that the lack of a legal definition of extremism had sparked human rights abuses
around the world, and allowed “illegitimate judgments about what extremism is”. British counterterror
police’s inclusion of Extinction Rebellion on a list of signs and symbols – which has since been recalled –
showed the risk of the “inclusion of non-violent groups on executive lists of ‘extremist’ entities”, she said.
A Home Office document on the Prevent duty states that the strategy was “explicitly changed in 2011 to
deal with all forms of terrorism and with non-violent extremism, which can create an atmosphere conducive
to terrorism and can popularise views which terrorists then exploit”. The UN report criticised Prevent and
similar programmes in other nations for failing to properly evaluate their effectiveness or impact on human
rights.
“Large-scale violations of the rights of religious and ethnic minorities are being enabled by ‘deradicalisation’
policies and practice,” Ms Ni Aolain said. “These practices produce alienation and mistrust in the
communities we need most to address the global challenges of extremist violence.”
Research published earlier this week found that 55 per cent of British Muslims surveyed had not heard of
Prevent, but that most supported its principles. The latest report comes amid criticism over the handling of