Children have always been among the most vulnerable victims of violence and, at times, some of its brutal purveyors. They have played various roles in furthering violent extremism and participating in acts of violence, ranging from inciting propaganda online to carrying out deadly attacks. Rather than exceptionalizing these children, their treatment under the criminal justice system should be grounded in juvenile justice standards.
To advance the work of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), the government of Australia commissioned the Global Center and the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT) to prepare a report and accompanying policy brief putting forward guiding principles, recommendations, and considerations for the detention, rehabilitation, and reintegration of juveniles convicted of terrorism and violent extremism offenses. Together, they advance a juvenile justice approach for authorities responsible for the care of juvenile violent extremist offenders and support the notion that national security interests and juvenile justice imperatives are compatible and mutually reinforcing in preventing and countering violent extremism.
Responding to a call from the GCTF Neuchâtel Memorandum on Good Practices for Juvenile Justice in a Counterterrorism Context to collect and collate information on children engaged in terrorism-related activity, the report takes stock of theory, policies, and practice globally. The recommendations draw from international juvenile justice standards, the emerging body of principles and practices in the detention of adult violent extremist offenders, and the national experiences in demobilizing and reintegrating child combatants and members of organized criminal groups.
The report elaborates on the policy brief that was formally adopted by the GCTF in December 2016. The policy brief was adapted for publication in EuroVista’s Probation and Community Justice Journal, available at http://euro-vista.org/.
This paper assesses how the revised Official Development Assistance (ODA) guidelines will impact the European Union (EU) and its decisions on financing external support for actions to prevent violent extremism. It examines the situation before and after the revision to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ODA eligibility rules, and concludes with specific recommendations for the EU to consider, including: devoting more resources to activities aimed at preventing violent extremism (PVE) across a wider array of EU Instruments (geographic and thematic); and urging the EU and its member states to press the OECD to collect, analyze, and disseminate data on how PVE funds are spent when recorded as ODA.
Since 2011, the Global Center has worked with the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), with generous support from the government of Norway, to implement a process that engages civil society actors and experts in efforts to enhance regional cooperation in South Asia. This process, undertaken in partnership with the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, included regular dialogue and engagement with nongovernmental actors in South Asia to foster deeper understanding of local and regional drivers of terrorism and violent extremism and to identify critical gaps, opportunities, and priorities for capacity-building support to address the threat.
This assessment presents key outcomes of the multiyear civil society and experts process. It provides an overview of regional challenges and the efforts by the Global Center and CTED to identify key needs and priorities to inform responsive policies and programs to address the threat of terrorism and violent extremism in South Asia. A set of recommendations highlight practical ways that multilateral and regional organizations and national governments can work with civil society, experts, and practitioners to address this threat in the region.
Within the context of the Managing Juveniles in Detention Initiative established by the Global Counterterrorism Forum’s Detention and Reintegration Working Group, this policy brief puts forth guiding principles, recommendations, and considerations for the detention, rehabilitation, and reintegration of juveniles convicted of terrorism and violent extremism-related crimes in a manner that upholds the principles and safeguards of juvenile justice. Funded by the government of Australia, adopted by the Global Counterterrorism Forum, and prepared by the Global Center and the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT), it expands on the Neuchâtel Memorandum on Good Practices for Juvenile Justice in a Counterterrorism Context.
The recommendations presented in the brief derive from a larger research report to be published in early 2017, prepared in collaboration with the University of Leiden. Together, the reports advance a juvenile justice approach for authorities responsible for the care of detained juvenile violent extremist offenders, drawing from good practices in international juvenile justice, the emerging body of principles and practices in the detention of adult violent extremist offenders, and the national experiences in demobilizing and reintegrating child combatants.
The South Asia Judges Toolkit provides practice-oriented guidance to judges and judicial training academies of the Member States of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation on the adjudication of terrorism and related cases in line with customary international and human rights law and norms. The Toolkit is designed to support judicial academies in the development of national bench books and practice manuals by providing guiding principles and resources. In the absence of a national manual, the toolkit can be used by judges as a reference guide. The contents of the Toolkit may also prove useful for other professionals working in this field, such as prosecutors and investigators.
There is considerable international interest in programs that seek to rehabilitate and reintegrate violent extremist offenders (VEOs) and prevent prisoners from becoming radicalized. There are a number of reasons for this interest, including the high social and political impact of terrorism, ongoing concerns about prisons and prisoners being especially vulnerable to radicalization to violent extremism, accounts of VEOs who initially became interested in extremism while in prison, and the increasing numbers of incarcerated VEOs in certain states, many of whom will at some point be released into wider society. Identifying and designing so-called deradicalization or disengagement programs—or perhaps more appropriately risk reduction programs—that are proven to be impactful and understanding why remains a considerable challenge. So-called what-works principles underlying programs to prevent other forms of offending behavior have been established in the criminological and forensic psychological literature over recent decades. The key what-works principles are risk, need, and responsivity.
This policy brief provides a unique practitioners’ perspective on the application of so-called what-works principles, which underlie programs to prevent a variety of forms of offending behavior, to programs and interventions that aim to address violent extremism in prisons and probation. It presents a set of transparent working principles to improve the design and delivery of these programs that can hopefully be examined and tested over time to help refine our knowledge and understanding to prevent violent extremists from reoffending.
Over the past few years, there has been an increase in multilateral norms and principles recognizing the critical roles of women in preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE). However, there is less attention to the practical dimensions of implementing a gender dimension into P/CVE efforts, as well as strategic coordination with the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda and other fields, such as development and human rights, which for a long time have advanced comprehensive approaches to gender integration.
This policy brief, produced by the Global Center and Inclusive Security, explores ways of enhancing a cross-sectoral approach to integrating inclusion of gender and women as a core component of the United Nations and member state P/CVE efforts while developing a closer understanding of the potential points of convergence between the P/CVE and WPS agendas. It takes stock of multilateral efforts in this area and concludes with a set of practical recommendations for UN member states, entities, and stakeholders on ways to integrate attention to gender and enhance women’s meaningful inclusion in P/CVE.
Local, rather than national actors, are often better positioned to prevent the spread of violent extremism within their communities, including by identifying early signs of radicalization and intervening before it leads to the kind of violence we continue to see far too often in cities around the world. Supporting and sustaining such efforts globally requires, among other things, updating the international architecture for addressing terrorism and violent extremism, which has been focused almost entirely on national governments and driven by their security concerns.
This policy brief highlights how multilateral fora like the United Nations and Global Counterterrorism Forum need to enhance the involvement of community-level actors in their counterterrorism and CVE discussions. More fundamentally, however, the brief calls for developing and supporting a durable sub-national cooperation architecture to facilitate collaboration and networking among the growing numbers of local actors contributing to CVE efforts. It also argues for more space for subnational actors and non-traditional stakeholders within national counterterrorism strategies to ensure inclusive and well-informed CVE approaches are central parts of such frameworks.
Despite the Greater Horn of Africa’s reputation as one of the most conflict-affected parts of the world, the rise of extremist political violence in recent years has led to a heightened sense of insecurity in the subregion. Observers have increasingly raised concerns about the subregion’s potential vulnerability to violent extremism and the ongoing threat posed by al-Shabaab in Somalia. Preventing and countering violent extremism (CVE) in the Greater Horn has become a key priority for a growing community of national, regional, and international stakeholders.
This report provides an overarching survey of regional and national drivers of violent extremism and other sources of insecurity in the Greater Horn, and provides an overview of responses by government and civil society actors in a subset of countries in the subregion: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Part of a broader program to strengthen regional CVE capacities supported by the U.S. Department of State, the report offers strategic and policy-related insights for CVE stakeholders and highlights the need for holistic strategies that support inclusive and sustainable responses to violent extremism.
In recent years, the role of women in preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) has gained momentum in the international counterterrorism policy discourse. Several questions emerge when discussing the particulars of why and how women partake in both violent extremism and P/CVE efforts. For example, what are the different roles that women can undertake in a terrorist organization? Are females recruited differently than their male counterparts? What roles do they play in inciting or persuading others to join violent extremist groups? Is there a particular role for women in countering terrorism and P/CVE? Are specific policies aimed at women a necessity moving forward? How can a gender analysis be effectively integrated into P/CVE policy and programming?
The collection of essays contained in this edited volume by the Global Center and Hedayah seeks to build the body of literature on women and P/CVE by drawing on examples from a number of countries and regions. The essays contain both policy-level recommendations as well as programmatic suggestions, and seek to answer some of the outstanding questions regarding the types of roles women might play in P/CVE efforts.
