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Organizing Against Violent Extremism

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Workshop on Multi-Disciplinary Thinking and Innovative Action: Collaboration Around the P/CVE Agenda

20-21 June 2018

Oxford University

On 20-21 June 2018, the Prevention Project: Organizing Against Violent Extremism (Prevention Project) and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) hosted a workshop at the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR), University of Oxford, on Multi-Disciplinary Thinking and Innovative Action: Collaboration around the P/CVE Agenda. The event convened a group of experts from diverse fields, including mental health, urban planning, democracy promotion, human rights, peacebuilding, neuroscience, gang violence, comedy, social entrepreneurship, youth empowerment, and law enforcement. The objective was to reflect on the existing global preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE)3 agenda and identify innovative approaches to maximize its impact long-term, including understanding what works to prevent and counter violent extremism, with a focus on local level actors and implications. Participants addressed key questions and explored seminal challenges in the P/CVE
area.

They agreed that innovations are not only critical to building trust and collaboration between government stakeholders (i.e., law enforcement and non-law enforcement and national, sub-national, and local government institutions) and between government and civil society, and within civil society, in order to sustain effective P/CVE efforts but also are inevitable in order to adapt to the ever-evolving landscape. The workshop discussions will inform a report on the state of the global P/CVE agenda that the Prevention Project and RUSI will present on the margins of the high-level opening of the 73rd UN General Assembly in late September 2018 in New York.

Summary: Civil Society as a Key (and often missing) Ingredient to Effective Multi-Stakeholder Approaches to Managing the Reverse Flow of FTFs: Challenges and Opportunities

May 22, 2018

Side-Event OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Conference

Rome, Italy

Chaired by the Prevention Project’s Eric Rosand this side-event focused on the diverse contributions that civil society organizations (CSOs) can make, and insome cases are making, often in partnership with governments, to manage the reverse flow of Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs). It highlighted both examples of CSO contributions and some of the challenges they face working on these sensitive issues.

Side-Event OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Conference

Civil Society as a Key (and often missing) Ingredient to Effective Multi-Stakeholder Approaches to Managing the Reverse Flow of FTFs: Challenges and Opportunities 

Rome, Italy, 10 May 2018, 16:30-18:00

This session will focus on the diverse contributions that civil society organizations (CSOs) from across the OSCE region can make, often in close partnership with governments, to manage the reverse flow of Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs). It will allow civil society and other participants in the 2018 OSCE-wide CT conference an opportunity to share their experiences, good practices, and challenges working on these issues and develop ideas for steps that the OSCE and its partnering states can take to create more opportunities for CSOs, including women- and youth-led organizations, to contribute.

It will also draw attention to and take stock of progress implementing the relevant recommendations on how to enhance CSO contributions to preventing and countering violent extremism that leads to terrorism, with a particular focus on youth and women, developed during the “civil society day” on the margins of the 2017 OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Conference in Vienna, and those elaborated by the Global Solutions Exchange (GSX), including those related to the rehabilitation and reintegration of returning FTFs.

 

Improving PVE Practice

March 5, 2018

10 Steps to Designing and Implementing Inclusive National Action Plans to Prevent Violent Extremism

The United Nations Plan of Action on Preventing Violent Extremism calls on each member state to “consider developing a national plan of action to prevent violent extremism which sets national priorities for addressing the local drivers of violent extremism and complements national counter-terrorism strategies where they already exist.”
It further reinforces the need for a “whole of society approach to PVE and encourages member states to engage fully the breadth of civil society and other local actors in the development of national action plans, including women’s and youth organizations. This recognizes that a vibrant independent civil society is a critical pillar for preventing violent extremism and promoting social cohesion.

 

Ensuring an Inclusive Approach to the Development and Implementation of National P/CVE Action Plans: The Role of Civil Society – Washington, DC roundtable

January 17, 2018

As part of its ongoing effort to facilitate greater collaboration between civil society organizations (CSOs) government, multilateral institutions, and other key stakeholders involved in preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE), and promoting ‘whole of society’ approaches to P/CVE more broadly, the Prevention Project convened the second in a series of roundtables on ‘Ensuring an Inclusive Approach to the Development and Implementation of National P/CVE Action Plans: The Role of Civil Society’. The roundtable, which follows one the Prevention Project organized in New York in December, included different stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of P/CVE National Action Plans (NAPs), including from the United States and other national governments, as well as from the United Nations and research, peacebuilding, and other non-government organizations. Throughout the discussion, participants put forward practical recommendations related to ongoing P/CVE NAP efforts.