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 recent conference about counterterrorism strategies sponsored by the United Nations.
With representatives from the UN’s CTED and CTITF in attendance, she and other participants at the conference advocated for a multidisciplinary counterterrorism approach, saying, “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 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