Civil society plays a vital role as facilitator and innovator in efforts to prevent and counter the threats of violent extremism, Cordaid’s Lia van Broekhoven said at a conference on counterterrorism strategies sponsored by the United Nations. She and other speakers at the conference described counterterrorism efforts by traditional convenors and military actors that exclude civil society as unsustainable and counterproductive. Instead, comprehensive and inclusive solutions that address the root causes of violent extremism outlined in the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy were recommended. Sponsored by the the UN’s Counterterrorism Centre, the event took place in Bogotá, Colombia on Feb. 1, 2013.
Participants at the conference embraced a “multidisciplinary counterterrorism approach,” according to the conference’s summary document, which said “Any effective counterterrorism strategy must integrate elements beyond the law enforcement infrastructure and include socio-economic, political, educational, developmental, human rights and rule of law.” They also called for “proportional” measures in response to threats, and to include input from civil society, including humanitarian groups, in the development and implementation phases of national anti-terror strategies.
Van Broekhoven told the audience, which included officials from the UN’s Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF), “The global strategy stipulates that prolonged unresolved conflicts, lack of rule of law and violations of human rights, dehumanization of victims of terrorism, ethnic, religious, national discrimination, political exclusion, socio-economic marginalization and lack of good governance are conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism.”
To better respond to these drivers of conflict she noted that Cordaid and over 40 civil society organizations and global networks started the Human Security Collective. “We have established this initiative because violent extremism, terrorism, and countering these are too important to be left to the government and the security sector,” she said. In addition to bringing conflict mediation expertise and cultural understanding, civil society actors “can move in and between the different spaces occupied by security forces, violent extremists, government, entrepreneurs and communities.” The use of unofficial channels for peace negotiations, commonly called Track II diplomacy, involves civil society actors and is designed to complement official action by building bridges between opposing sides.
The Human Security Collective includes groups such as the Kroc Institute of International Peace at Notre Dame and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), and advocates for “broad participation” among divergent sectors, communities and stakeholders to reach peaceful and long-term solutions to conflicts in places like Colombia or Mali. “Human security is about the dignity of human beings in situations of conflict and extreme violence. It is about being including in dialogues to achieve greater stability and peace,” she said. “We as a global civil society collaborative have a responsibility to secure the space they need to operate,” she added.