We, the undersigned civil society organisations, express grave concern at the UK government’s appointment of William Shawcross as the new reviewer of the counter-terrorism strategy Prevent. Shawcross has been appointed to replace Lord Carlile, who was removed from the post following a legal challenge last year. The appointments of both Shawcross and Lord Carlile have made clear, beyond doubt, that the UK government has no interest in conducting an objective and impartial review of the strategy, nor in engaging meaningfully with communities affected by it. Instead, it is apparent that the government intends to use this review to whitewash the strategy and give it a clean bill of health, without interrogating, in good faith, its impacts on human rights and fundamental freedoms. Without these perspectives, it is impossible to impartially assess the Prevent policy.

We, the undersigned groups, cannot be complicit in a process that serves only to rubber stamp a fundamentally flawed strategy. We therefore announce a collective boycott of the Prevent review. In lieu of participating in the government’s review, civil society groups will conduct a parallel review that properly considers the harms of Prevent, including documenting discrimination and rights violations caused by it.

We, and other non-governmental organisations, have long raised concerns about the discriminatory and anti-Muslim impact of Prevent and its potential to violate core human rights. Many of us were eager to provide evidence to a properly independent review, and to engage with the appointed reviewer. However, Shawcross’s appointment, given his well-known record and previous statements on Islam, and following the debacle of the Carlile appointment, brings into question the good faith of the government in establishing the review and fundamentally undermines its credibility. As a director of the Henry Jackson Society, Shawcross expressed patently Islamophobic views, saying: “Europe and Islam is one of the greatest, most terrifying problems of our future. I think all European countries have vastly, very quickly growing Islamic populations.” As far as we are aware, he has never publicly disavowed these comments. During the period when the Charity Commission was chaired by Shawcross, it was accused of disproportionately focusing on Muslim charities, including by putting them under investigation.

The UK government must fundamentally reconsider its flawed and counter-productive counter-terrorism strategy, which has profound and far-reaching human rights impacts. We condemn its lack of political will to carry out this crucial task—the price of which continues to be disproportionately paid by Muslims across the UK.

Amnesty International

ARTICLE 19

Big Brother Watch

C.A.R.E. – Coalition of Anti-Racist Educators

CAGE 

Child Rights International Network (CRIN)

DefendDigitalMe

Inclusive Mosque Group

Liberty

Maslaha

Medact

MEND

Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol)

No More Exclusions

Northern Police Monitoring Project

Open Society Justice Initiative

The Runnymede Trust

10-02-2021

With Greater Manchester Police having repeatedly disgraced themselves recently, last weekend’s police raid of university accommodation is the latest example of heavy-handed policing, with students targeted once again. 

It is apparent that the University of Manchester is playing an active role in subjecting its students to over-the-top policing and heavy fines. Whilst the police do not have power of entry without a warrant or reasonable suspicion that a person is infectious, student accommodation contracts allow the University to authorise police patrols and surveillance of student accommodation. The events of last weekend indicate that University leaders have elected to do just that, subjecting their students to levels of police harassment that they should – in theory at least – be protected from. 

Coming off the back of the university’s reckless and economically driven decision to push ahead with a full return to campus in September, it is yet another demonstration of the University of Manchester’s gross mistreatment of its students. This mistreatment has also included the heavy securitisation of campus which led to students being locked up in their halls, the erection of restrictive fences, ID checks, the racial profiling of a Black student by campus security, and the disproportionate use of police power in response to student demonstrations. Even in this context, and despite some success for the student rent strikes, the university continues to extort expensive halls (and tuition) fees from students. It is clear that the university has learnt nothing from its recent failures, some of which we had previously detailed here.  

We extend our solidarity to the students affected and to the student-led cops off campus and rent strikes campaigns. We remain deeply concerned about the encroachment of police and private security on university campuses, and committed to the building of safer educational environments free from police. We look forward to future organising alongside students.

4 FEBRUARY 2021

Following a recent report in the Telegraph, The Northern Police Monitoring Project condemns Greater Manchester Police’s (GMP) intention to double the number of Taser-trained officers drawing on ring-fenced funding from the Home Office.  This decision demonstrates a reckless disregard for well-documented concerns about the inherent risks associated with police use of Taser raised by human rights and medical experts as well as the individuals and families directly impacted. A recent report by Greater Manchester-based think tank Resistance Lab (2020) showed that between April 2017 and March 2019, GMP oversaw a 73% increase in Taser usage with disproportionate impacts on Black people and other vulnerable communities. In 2018/19, Black people in Greater Manchester were subject to Taser at nearly 4 times the rate of their white counterparts. The report also revealed that Taser was being routinely used against children and vulnerable adults, particularly those with mental health issues. These concerns have increasingly attracted the attention of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) which intervened in two such cases in 2020 alone. In May, the IOPC opened an investigation into GMP’s use of the weapon against Desmond Ziggy Mombeyara in front of his infant child in Stretford. In December, the ‘independent’ watchdog also called on GMP to reinvestigate the 2014 case of Michael Gilchrist, an autistic man who was left traumatised after police repeatedly used Taser to subdue him during a mental health crisis. Despite these growing concerns, GMP – a force currently under ‘special measures’ and whose culture and practices are coming under increased scrutiny including from GM Mayor Andy Burnham – is moving forward with blinkered plans to rollout Taser to 1,100 officers. Such a strategy will only result in greater unnecessary losses of life and serious injury with disproportionate impacts upon our most overpoliced and vulnerable communities.