Civil society organizations represent a bulwark against violent extremism. Civil society organizations across South and Central Asia, many of which focus on development, conflict prevention, peace-building, and human rights, have leveraged their experience in these areas to develop innovative preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) programs targeting a broad spectrum of issues confronting their communities. These initiatives include producing educational entertainment that challenges extremist narratives, improving relationships between communities and local government, and promoting research and understanding to better recognize local factors contributing to the spread of violent radicalization.
To help advance these efforts, the Global Center with support from the U.S. Department of State, undertook a two-year program to support civil society organizations in South and Central Asia in the development of contextually tailored and locally relevant responses to violent extremism. It concludes with key recommendations for policymakers, practitioners, and donors to consider as they look to initiate or increase support for P/CVE initiatives in South and Central Asia.
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.
As a field of policy and practice, countering violent extremism (CVE) has emerged rapidly in recent years and represents the most significant development in counterterrorism over that time. But CVE stands at something of a fulcrum point. There is enough experience in “doing CVE” to expect that data about its effects and effectiveness can be gathered and analyzed. In turn, such analyses ought to inform future developments if policy is to be evidence based. This report asks, “Does CVE work?” In elaborating a response, the report provides a brief primer on CVE, which is often criticized for lacking coherence as a field. It reviews publicly available evaluation research on CVE to derive lessons from the past, which pertain to governmental efforts to engage communities for the purpose of CVE. It analyzes how those evaluations and related efforts to learn from experience have impacted the evolution of CVE, which has, in general, become better focused on the risk of extremist behavior over time. In turn, the report reviews the state of the art in evaluating CVE measures. The report makes the case for systematizing the understanding and practice of CVE, committing to its evaluation, and moderating expectations about its impacts.
Combined with a history of violent conflict, the greater Horn of Africa subregion has offered an enabling environment for violent extremism for more than a half century. The Global Center and partners recently conducted a pilot demonstration project in coastal Kenya and Somaliland and produced this report, which offers insight into local perceptions of violent extremism and details an approach to countering the phenomenon based on key drivers identified by participating communities.
This report presents the findings of a pilot demonstration project conducted by the Global Center to assess community attitudes towards violent extremism and the impact of international prevention programming undertaken in Kenya and Somaliland. The report offers a series of recommendations on how relevant international actors can best contribute to context-sensitive CVE programming in partnership with local communities.
This short film was produced to capture local perspectives on the impact of violent extremism on their communities. Community activists, religious and civil society leaders, and local experts from Nairobi and Coast Province share their thoughts and suggest ways to overcome challenges in the Kenyan context. It can be viewed at: https://vimeo.com/56780867.
This handbook provides practical guidance to decision-makers on what human rights compliance means and how it is to be achieved in the context of counterterrorism law and practice.
