Tuesday morning 26/03/2019 saw the opening of the second day of the International Countering Violent Extremism Research Conference. This day allowed for more in-depth conversations on specific challenges within the field of CVE, which included the role of civil society organizations, the inclusion of a gender perspective and developments on Rehabilitation and reintegration programmes.
The first session was specifically focused on the role of grass roots organizations in community-led initiatives to P/CVE. This initial scope lead participants into a highly engaging conversation that looked not only at the different roles that civil society organizations play but also the ways in which youth can affect responses to radicalization. Mr. Samuel Goda, OSCE Special Representative for Youth and Security highlighted the need to build bridges at local and regional level to stimulate the participation of youth on creating alternative narratives to violent extremism. Following Mr. Goda, Ms. Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Political Studies spoke about employing broader networks and platforms for bridging the gaps between our civil societies and governments for better violent extremism prevention.
Insights on human rights were also brought into the debate during session II. Ms. Isabelle Tschan, Team Leader Governance and Peacebuilding, UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub, indicated in the presentation that by improving the socio-economic inclusion of young men and women in their societies a better resilience mechanism can be developed. Complementing, Ms. Tschan`s inputs, Mr. John McCoy, Executive Director of the Organization for Prevention of Violence argued that working with select women and family-centred grassroots organizations provides a more effective response in addressing the gaps within CVE. According to Mr. McCoy, better interaction among community leaders, law enforcement and human service providers is necessary for a more holistic approach to programmes dealing with violent extremism.
The third session was concerned with reintegration and rehabilitation of individuals who have been engaged with radical extremist groups. This session was careful to incorporate approaches from multiple geographic regions and contexts. Participants were able to learn more about projects that were being run in communities. Ms. Valerie Lebaux, Chief of Justice Section, UNODC, shed light upon the issue of de-radicalization in prisons. She highlighted that the UNODC has been working in a three-pronged approach: de-radicalization, with the goal to change views and attitudes; disengagement from violence, aiming at changing of behavior; and focusing on target groups. She also highlighted that there is a need for different specializations within the prison system to come together in de-radicalization programmes, including psychologists and religious leaders.
The closing remarks were provide by three distinguished representatives. Mr. Vladimir Voronkov, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Office on Counter-Terrorism, concluded that insights provided during the conference provided a comprehensive view of the main challenges within the field of CVE and opportunities to provide innovative solutions to prevent violent extremism. Mr. Voronkov also pleaded to member states to include human rights perspectives within all their CVE initiatives and programmes. Finally, Mr. Voronkov stated that “we need more emphasis on bridging the gaps between national leadership and local communities, give more support to the victims of terrorism and mainstreaming gender analysis into CVE”.
Mr. Thomas Greminger, OSCE Secretary General gave the final remarks by highlighting the need for a context-specific and inclusive approach to CVE. One that includes civil society organization’s inputs as well as women and youth in all stages of CVE programmes. Mr. Greminger further stated that the OSCE is addressing specific challenges in the field through a series of guidelines on the inclusion of civil society, referral mechanisms and gender mainstreaming in the security sector.
Upon leaving the conference on the second day the atmosphere was one of heightened collaboration and the desire to find more cross disciplinary partners for common initiatives in the field of CVE. Events like this are of the utmost importance for the exchange of best practices and the expansion of new concepts and endeavors by CVE practitioners, researchers and policy makers.