Counter-Extremism in British Schools: Ensuring Respect for Parents’ Rights Over Their Children’s Religious Upbringing

ABSTRACT

The UK Government’s PREVENT strategy to counter radicalisation and extremism has been the subject of criticism. Concerns arise over clarity of purpose, clarity of terminology used and potential human rights impacts. Where the policy engages with schools, one human right potentially engaged is the right of parents to transfer their religious beliefs to their children. This paper looks at how PREVENT risks negatively impacting on this right. It proposes a way that this risk can be reduced by adopting a proactive approach to the Government’s security concerns which is centred on human rights education.

Keywords:

• PREVENT
• extremism
• education
• freedom of religion
• parental rights

6. Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.