Background Briefing

Conclusion

The change of leadership in the United Kingdom offers an opportunity to review Britain’s approach to countering terrorism. Five years of counterterrorism measures that violate human rights law have been damaging to the UK’s image at home and abroad, and deeply counterproductive. Prime Minister Brown should set the country on a new course, by bringing UK counterterrorism law and policy back into line with European and International standards and long-standing British values, thereby ensuring that its approach supports rather than undermines its efforts to prevent radicalization and recruitment, and reviving the UK’s leadership on human rights.