A/HRC/43/46
counter-terrorism strategy away from a strictly military approach to an approach that
combines hard and soft power,13 whereby “the battle of ideas would be engaged alongside
the battle for territory; the fight against ‘radical Islam’ would be cultural as much as
corporeal”.14
9.
At the United Nations, the words “violent” and “extremism” began appearing in the
same sentence beginning in 2010, with Security Council resolution 1963 (2010). 15
“Countering violent extremism” appeared for the first time in 2014, in Security Council
resolution 2178 (2014), whereas “preventing violent extremism” appeared in 2015, in the
Secretary-General’s Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism. As noted in the Plan of
Action, violent extremism is a diverse phenomenon, without a clear definition. It is neither
new nor exclusive to any region, nationality or system of belief. As highlighted in the Plan
of Action, violent extremist ideologies usually promoted messages of intolerance for
differing religious, cultural and social views, that violent extremist groups employed tactics
that challenged the values of peace, justice and human dignity and that violent extremism
flourished in environments characterized by poor governance and injustice.16
10.
In its resolution 72/284, the General Assembly recalled that the important work on
preventing violent extremism as and when conducive to terrorism was firmly rooted in the
United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. The Special Rapporteur notes that,
although it is conceptually possible to distinguish between countering violent extremism and
preventing violent extremism, with the former focused on countering the activities of existing
violent extremists and the latter focused on preventing the further spread of violent
extremism, in practice, those notions are often blurred and approaches are aligned and
combined. Within those categories, increased distinctions can be made between what is
envisioned for short-term, medium-term and long-term synergies between countering violent
extremism and preventing violent extremism17 or between interventions specifically aimed
at preventing violent extremism that seek to disrupt the radicalization and recruitment
processes and those that seek to reintegrate individuals who have already joined a violent
extremist organization. Addressing “pull factors” has broadly fallen into the domain of
countering violent extremism. Interventions relevant to preventing violent extremism are
most usefully defined as those that seek to address the structural drivers of violent extremism,
or “push factors”. 18 Where preventing and countering violent extremism includes both
security and development, there is a need to ensure a balanced approach that does not
privilege the former over the latter.19
11.
Terminology, policy and practice relating to the prevention and countering of violent
extremism is now embedded within the United Nations, national institutions and new and
non-institutional international bodies. The Working Group on Preventing and Countering
Violent Extremism Conducive to Terrorism of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism
Coordination Compact is chaired jointly by the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO). The Financial Action Task Force revised its recommendation 8,and the related
interpretative note, in 2016, to indicate that the Task Force recognized the intent and efforts
to date of non-profit organizations to promote transparency within their operations and to
prevent terrorist financing abuse, including through the development of programmes aimed
at discouraging radicalization and violent extremism. 20 Similarly, the countering violent
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
4
Building on earlier pre-11 September 2001 models of counter-terrorism strategy. See Frank Kitson,
Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency and Peacekeeping (Stackpole Books, 1971); and
Constantine Melnik, Insurgency and Counter-insurgency in Algeria (RAND, 1964).
Arun Kundnani and Ben Hayes, “The globalization of countering violent extremism policies”,
Transnational Institute, February 2018.
See para. 5 above.
A/70/674, paras. 2 and 27.
UNDP, “Assessing progress made and the future of approaches to preventing violent extremism:
report of the second global meeting of UNDP on preventing violent extremism (Oslo II)”, May 2018.
UNDP, “Journey to extremism in Africa”.
UNDP, “Report on Oslo II”.
Financial Action Task Force, International Standards on Combating Money Laundering and the
Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation.
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