May 10th, 2018
The continuing global spread of extremist and terrorist ideology has become an alarming trend that has brought about greater threats and undermined the security of both individual states as well as entire regions, negatively impacting stability within and beyond the OSCE geographical scope.
The first day of the 2018 OSCE wide Counter-Terrorism Conference gathered more than 50 participating States from Europe, Central Asia and North America.All bound together to address one of the most critical issues of nowadays: Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs). The danger posed by FTFs who have received combat and sabotage techniques training in conflict zones represents a challenge to the international and local communities. In attempting to discover opportunities to overcome these challenges, stakeholders from a variety of expertise provided solutions to and exchanged views on the phenomenon. In his opening remarks, Mr Vincenzo Amedola, Deputy-Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy, stated that the transnational nature of the FTFs’ phenomenon requires a collective actions at multiple levels, which must involve civil society elements, academic institutions, mass media and religious leaders. Mr. Oleg Syromolotov, Russia Deputy-Minister of Foreign Affairs, highlighted that countering terrorist ideology and developing ‘civil immunity’ in order to prevent terrorists from winning over ordinary citizens is an essential objective of the joint work of State and Society.
Moving to the session 1 ‘Trends and Dynamics of Returning or Relocating FTFs: Exchange of Views on National Experience and International Cooperation’, stakeholders which included Mr Laurence Underhill, UK Lead Analyst on the Dispersal of Foreign Terrorist Fighters, outlined relevant policy and political commitments in addressing threats related to the FTF and explored ways to strengthen international, regional, and sub-regional cooperation.
On the side-event, the Brussels International Center for Research and Human Rights (BIC-RHR) was invited to be amongst the 19 civil society organizations present at the Forum and was represented by Mr. Fernando Aguiar, Research and Policy Officer: Conflict and Security, who highlighted various aspects of the organization research and current activities. Significantly, Mr. Aguiar participated in a side-event titled ‘The Role of Families and Communities in Prevention and Rehabilitation: Gender Sensitive Approaches as Sustainable and Innovative Strategies’, where he and other civil society representatives deliberated strategies that foster better educational practices to counter violent extremism in youth. Mr. Aguiar presented BIC-RHR’s series of essays on Gender and CVE and spoke about the intractable, inter-connected questions concerning women’s agency in processes of violent extremism. In his view, de-radicalization or preventive efforts on violent extremism needs to have a significant inclusion of a gender perspective for enhancing operational effectiveness.
Session II of the Conference brought together five distinguished OSCE Member State representatives to deliberate on the nexus between terrorism and organized crime, including trafficking in human beings. Furthermore, speakers highlighted that CVE strategies need to be consistent with international human rights law in order to protect critical soft targets from terrorist attacks.