UN slams Britain’s ‘Big Brother’ anti-terrorism strategy
RT.com
30 May, 2017
The UK’s ‘Big Brother’ culture of surveillance and suspicion in combatting terrorism is “inherently flawed” and could be promoting extremism rather than combatting it, a UN report has found.
The report, which was drawn up before the May 22 suicide bombing in Manchester that killed 22 people, is highly critical of many policies overseen by Prime Minister Theresa May in her prior role as home secretary.
It comes just 10 days before a general election that polls say May could win with a narrow majority.
The report, written by Maina Kiai, who was the UN’s Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly until last month, slammed the government’s ‘Prevent’ strategy, which aims to safeguard vulnerable individuals who are at risk of radicalization.
The strategy relies on intelligence coming from community leaders and schools.
“Overall, it appears that Prevent is having the opposite of its intended effect: by dividing, stigmatizing and alienating segments of the population. Prevent could end up promoting extremism, rather than countering it,” the UN report says.
The report also criticized Britain’s Investigatory Powers Act, introduced last year, as “intrusive … bound to have a detrimental impact on the legitimate activities carried out by civil society and political activists.”
The Rest…HERE
