International Day to Combat Islamophobia 2025

On 12 March 2025 Amnesty International UK (AIUK) organised a drop-in to brief MPs on their work to fight Islamaphobia. The U.N. General Assembly established the International Day to Combat Islamophobia in 2022, designating March 15 as the day of the celebration. The UK also marks Islamophobia Awareness Month in November, to raise awareness and take collective responsibility to prevent acts of Islamophobia, both locally and globally.

There was a briefing on the human rights impacts of the Prevent Strategy. In their 2023 report ‘This is the Thought Police’, AIUK concludes that “Prevent violates fundamental human rights – including the right to freedom of expression; freedom of thoughts; and critically, the right to equality and non-discrimination – with significant impact of Muslims, children and neurodiverse people”, going on to propose key recommendations to:

• Abolish the Prevent duty, leaving professionals to use ordinary safeguarding processes to refer individuals at risk of harm.
• Withdraw the Prevent strategy and refrain from associating non-violent groups with terrorism.
• Refrain from attempts to delegitimise criticisms of the Prevent strategy by journalists, academics and civil society.
• Establish and implement alternatives to the criminal justice system for children accused of terrorism offences.
• Ensure victims of human rights violations under the Prevent strategy have access to an effective remedy.