MEND is pleased to announce the release of a new and important briefing paper titled, No Race to the Bottom: Avoiding Further Curbs to Freedom of Speech Under Labour. The briefing argues that our democracy, and particularly freedom of speech, is being put at risk by government actors who...
Yesterday marked the three-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tragedy. We recognise that the deaths were not inevitable. Instead, they were the consequence of a long sequence of socio-political and economic choices made at the expense of vulnerable communities. Austerity measures, introduced by...
In May of this year, 40-year old British Muslim, Raffia Arshad, became the first hijab-wearing woman to be appointed as a deputy district judge on the Midlands circuit. The newly appointed judge says she wants young Muslims to know they can achieve anything they put their minds to and wishes to use...
The Government recently unveiled the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill, saying that it: “will ensure that the sentences served by terrorists reflects the severity of offending and will strengthen the tools for monitoring them in the community.” However, the new bill has been met with much...
In May of this year, the leader of the far-right group Britain First was convicted of a terror offence. Paul Golding refused to hand counter-terrorism police officers the passwords to his phone and laptop hard drive after being stopped at Heathrow Airport in October 2019 upon his return from Russia...
MEND has joined with 84 other civic actors from around the world to protect the rights of stateless individuals. In the UK, refugees face racism, Islamophobia, and discrimination on a daily basis and their rights must be protected. As governments across the world confront the COVID-19 pandemic,...
BBC reporter, Sima Kotecha, was recently forced to cancel a live broadcast after she and her team were “subjected to racist and abusive behaviour” from a member of the public in Leicester. Kotecha was preparing to report live after prime minister Boris Johnson’s lockdown speech on BBC One,...
MEND is full of inspiring and accomplished volunteers. In this contribution, one of our volunteers from Wales discusses the importance of relationship building between the police and local minority communities In the daily lives of most people, the police are perhaps the most visible representation...
Earlier this month, a far-right extremist, Filip Golon Bednarczyk, pleaded guilty and was convicted for terror offences after admitting to possessing explosive material with plans to make bombs at home. He had downloaded the Christchurch extremist’s manifesto and shared memes supporting the...
Following the removal of Lord Carlile as the Independent Reviewer of the PREVENT programme in December 2019, as a result of legal action launched by Rights Watch UK, the status of the review was left in disarray. However, the Government has recently launched an open competition to appoint the next...
In response to the disproportionate impact of BAME deaths, Public Health England is conducting an inquiry to explore the disproportionate impact of the virus on ethnic minority communities. While the review is undoubtedly a welcome move, the decision to appoint Trevor Phillips (who has been...
