Blue Sky V: An Independent Analysis of UN Counterterrorism Efforts

This report, the fifth in the “Blue Sky” series, explores how the UN’s comparative advantage can be leveraged to improve the policy development, interagency coordination, delivery, and impact of counterterrorism and preventing violent extremism efforts in support of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. It first observes the growth of the Strategy and UN counterterrorism efforts in response to the evolving security landscape, resulting in a sprawling institutional architecture and array of programming that require considerable focus to coordinate and lead. Second, the report places counterterrorism and preventing violent extremism efforts within broader UN reforms to advance a prevention-forward approach that creates opportunities for greater integration across the UN’s pillars of human rights, peace and security, and development. Third, it assesses efforts to implement the Strategy at the global, institutional, and programmatic levels in a manner that systematically accounts for human rights and promotes transparency and accountability.

The recommendations focus on (1) calibrating the UN counterterrorism architecture; (2) situating UN counterterrorism efforts within the prevention framework; (3) engaging and supporting civil society; (4) mainstreaming human rights; and (5) assessing the Strategy’s implementation.

Summary findings and key recommendations were presented during a launch event held in July 2020, in the lead up to the Virtual UN Counter-Terrorism Week. Support for this project, including the consultations, high-level events, and report, was generously provided by the governments of the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland.

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This report contains a comparative evaluation of national strategies to prevent and counter violent extremism, to explore how they reflect recommendations and good practices outlined by the United Nations. Drawing upon a sample of 19 national strategies, the report analyzes the procedures and standards of policy planning that underpin the development of countries’ strategies. Using the guidelines of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism’s “Reference Guide: Developing National and Regional Action Plans to Prevent Violent Extremism” as a common analytical framework, the report is organized around the six procedural components outlined therein as essential in developing inclusive, context-specific, and robust national strategies.

Based on this comparative analysis, the report provides a number of recommendations related to each of the six procedural components analyzed. It is hoped that these recommendations will help guide countries as they develop new or optimize existing strategies in line with international norms and common standards of promising practice and in turn design more effective national strategies to prevent and counter violent extremism.

The Compendium of Good Practices in the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Violent Extremist Offenders presents good and promising practices in the rehabilitation and reintegration of violent extremist offenders (VEOs) in correctional settings, while also discussing how practices related to prison regime, security, intelligence, and risk assessment can impact these two processes. The compilation endeavors to (1) inform understanding and improve decision-making regarding the implementation of approaches for the rehabilitation and reintegration of VEOs, specifically in the correctional services of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, although it has value in other jurisdictions; (2) integrate established with emerging promising practices in this field; (3) translate key existing documents into an applied and accessible resource for use by various stakeholders; and (4) include good and promising practices associated with women, juveniles, and foreign fighters convicted of terrorism offenses, and prison and probation services where issues associated with violent extremism may be less frequent.

 

In the Sahel, weak law enforcement capacities, vast ungoverned territories, and underdeveloped criminal justice systems have contributed to the proliferation of nonstate armed groups, with the military placed at the forefront of suppression efforts. A number of issues arise in the adjudication of terrorism cases. Ambiguities in the law persist where the protective framework of minors conflict with repressive antiterrorism framework; understaffed courts are burdened by a large caseload, while individuals detained en masse face criminal sanctions that may not always be proportional to the gravity of the offense. Judicial investigations are further hampered by a lack of cooperation with military actors and coordinated efforts to preserve evidence on the battlefield.

To affirm the primacy of the criminal justice framework, the chief justices of the Sahel supreme courts unanimously adopted a set of recommendations on 2 March 2018 in Dakar, Senegal. This report presents the legal responses to terrorism in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal and discusses international standards articulated in the field, providing comparative analysis and commentary. It features contributions from supreme court justices from France, Niger, Mali and Senegal. The report forms part of a program on Counter-Terrorism Criminal Justice Support to Senior Judicial Officials shaped by a steering committee comprised of supreme court justices and implemented in partnership with UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and the Association of Francophone Supreme Courts, and funded by the International Organisation of la Francophonie and the governments of Canada and Japan.

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Quand la poussière retombe: La justice face au terrorisme dans le Sahel
Dans le Sahel, les faibles capacités de la police et la présence limitée des autorités dans les territoires reculés contribuent à l’inefficacité de la justice, et les militaires ont joué le rôle de premiers intervenants. Un certain nombre d’enjeux se posent dans la gestion des affaires de terrorisme. Les ambiguïtés de la loi persistent là où la protection spéciale accordée aux mineurs entre en conflit avec le cadre antiterroriste ; les cours, déjà surchargées, sont confrontés à un nombre croissant de dossiers de terrorisme et les accusés font l’objet de sanctions pénales qui ne sont pas toujours proportionnelles à la gravité du délit ou crime. Au niveau de l’enquête, les magistrats ont déploré la piètre qualité de la gestion des éléments de preuve par les premiers intervenants sur le champ de bataille.

Affirmant la primauté du cadre de justice pénale, les premiers présidents des cours suprêmes des pays du Sahel ont adopté à l’unanimité des recommandations dans la matière le 2 mars 2018 à Dakar, au Sénégal. Ce rapport présente les réponses judiciaires au terrorisme au Burkina Faso, au Mali, en Mauritanie, au Niger, au Sénégal, et au Tchad, et évoque des normes internationales développées dans la matière tout en fournissant une analyse et des commentaires comparatifs. Le rapport présente des contributions de magistrats des cours suprême de la France, du Niger, du Mali et du Sénégal, comprenant des membres d’un comité de pilotage dans le programme sur « Les cours suprêmes dans la prévention et la lutte contre le terrorisme ». Ce projet a été réalisé avec l’appui et l’expertise de la Direction exécutive du Comité contre le terrorisme, de l’Office des Nations Unies contre la drogue et le crime (ONUDC), de l’Association des Hautes Juridictions de Cassation des pays ayant en partage l’usage du français (AHJUCAF), et a bénéficié du soutien financier de l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) et des gouvernements canadien et japonais.

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This report provides good practices for the design and implementation of effective capacity development programs on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). It first reflects on the current AML/CFT landscape, including recent changes to AML/CFT evaluation methodologies, diverging responses to money laundering and terrorist financing, unintended consequences of AML/CFT measures, and the integration of financial inclusion objectives into AML/CFT efforts. Against this background, the report outlines good practices for the development of regional and national AML/CFT capacity development programs. It explores each stage of the program cycle: inception and design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. The report concludes with reflections on how technical assistance providers can help reconcile international standards, existing policies, and practical implementation contexts.

As governments consider effective responses to violent extremism, they must also decide how best to deal with those who have committed acts of violent extremism, particularly with regard to their rehabilitation and reintegration. Though it is their mandate, governments cannot undertake the rehabilitation and reintegration challenge alone. Civil society organizations can be well-placed to assist with or lead on various components and should be involved in planning and implementation. This action agenda builds on a 30 month project funded by the U.S. Department of State to explore the role of civil society organizations in rehabilitation and reintegration in three broad regions: the Sahel, the Greater Horn of Africa, and Southeast Asia. The action agenda offers guiding principles, recommendations, and examples to help stakeholders shape rehabilitation and reintegration practices and better incorporate the experiences and knowledge of civil society organizations.

Building on its previous analyses of the UN’s counterterrorism programs, the Global Center, with the generous support of the governments of Norway, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, has produced an independent report containing recommendations to support multilateral efforts to address terrorism and violent extremism in advance of the sixth review of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GCTS) in June. In addition to identifying ways to improve the development, coordination, delivery, and impact of the UN’s efforts, the report looks at what can be done to ensure that the sixth review can be used to more systematically assess the effectiveness of the UN efforts to support the implementation of the Strategy at headquarters, on the ground, and, importantly, between the two. The aim, therefore, is to lay the ground work during the sixth review to ensure that the seventh review in 2020 and subsequent ones can more rigorously take stock of the progress made by member states and by the United Nations to further the implementation of the GCTS.

As countries become better at detecting, investigating, and prosecuting terrorism suspects, including returning foreign terrorist fighters, prison services across the world are faced with a growing number of terrorism offenders in their institutions. The presence of these violent extremist offenders (VEOs) in the justice system poses new challenges to prison and probation services as well as to a range of other stakeholders and intervention providers involved in their management, rehabilitation and reintegration.

There is a clear urgency to address radicalization and recruitment to violent extremism in prisons and effectively reintegrate terrorism offenders. Yet the lack of understanding of the extent of the problem has led many governments to implement hasty solutions based on untested assumptions and anecdotal evidence. This article explores the challenges and issues regarding prison management and the process to rehabilitate and reintegrate VEOs. This essay is part of the 2017 Global Terrorism Index (GTI).

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.

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/.