Five Action Points for Preventing Violent Extremism

UNOY has been working on providing input for the development of a UN Plan of Action on Preventing Violent Extremism, which will be presented to the 70th UNGA Session in September. Below is the final version of the preventive strategies against violent extremism from a Young Peacebuilder’s perspective.

Five Action Points for Preventing Violent Extremism

We, the UNOY network, present the below five action points on preventing violent extremism to UN member states. The United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY), a network of 60 youth peace organizations across 45 countries, views youth as leaders of the present and the future who are able to act to prevent violent extremism and promote peace. The work of UNOY member organizations is just one example of young people taking action to build peace in communities across the globe. We ground our work on the Guiding Principles of Young People’s Participation in Peacebuilding. Although the UN member states expressed belief in youth at the High Level Event of the General Assembly marking the 20th Anniversary of the World Programme of Action for Youth in May this year, the current narrative on Countering and Preventing Violent Extremism sees youth as potential radicals and perpetrators or victims of  violence. At best, member states view youth as future potential agents of change. In order to change that, Member States must:

1. Recognize what young people are already doing in preventing violent extremism and promoting peace and nonviolence – especially through peace education. Build upon the existing capacities, networks and resources of young people. One example of many organizations and networks is UNOY Peacebuilders  which is a network of 60 youth-led organizations working across 45 countries on peacebuilding and prevention of violent extremism.
2. Enlarge existing spaces and social, cultural, political and economic structures that give young people opportunities to engage in and contribute to their societies – whether through civil society organizations, youth groups, youth employment schemes, arts, etc. For instance, a young facilitator in visual storytelling has been working with refugee youth from DRC, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Burma, helping them overcome their trauma of war through narrative art and storytelling (bit.ly/1IJopgq). We need similar opportunities for more people. Support and maximize opportunities for the engagement of young people through volunteer work in promoting reconciliation, developing national civilian peacebuilding capacities and social solidarity.
3. Facilitate an enabling environment for young peacebuilders to continue their work. Studies show that counter-terrorism measures have shrunk spaces for civil society in many fragile states (bit.ly/1KmO2I9, bit.ly/1NuLWFC). This can be counter-acted by ensuring young people full access to their rights – including their right to travel, freedom of expression and their right to mobilize. Enable young people to network and collaborate locally, nationally, regionally and internationally; ensure that they have access to unbiased information,  funding, and capacity development.
4. Conduct contextual research in collaboration with youth organizations to understand root causes and identify stakeholders in violent extremism, in order to design effective interventions at the local and international levels. Research should also focus on the positive contributions of young people in peacebuilding processes all over the world.
5. Allocate and increase funding for the above mentioned actions, and include young people in the decision making on the utilization of these funds.

The action points should be implemented within the following  principles:

• A holistic perspective and a comprehensive approach. The various root causes of violent extremism must be studied analytically and dealt with as a system in order to remedy and prevent their negative consequences more effectively, rather than taking reactionary steps to respond to individual incidents. Additionally, all levels of society (media and civil society, religious leaders and aid workers, students and teachers, young and old, women and men, etc) must work hand-in-hand to promote peace, justice, and human dignity as a way to prevent violent extremism.

• Meaningfully engage youth as partners. Youth are leaders of today, not just tomorrow. Young people are champions of change, not just victims or perpetrators of violence. In the five action points below, youth must have a leadership role and decision making power. We as young people do not want to be ONLY consulted, tokenized, or put as a ‘separate box’, but be considered equal partners within a comprehensive approach.

• Contextualise interventions. Violent extremism comes in different levels and is being bred in different political and socio-cultural contexts. Member states must be creative in designing strategies that are effective to local, national, and regional contexts.

• Be gender-sensitive.  People of all genders must engage in all the processes of preventing violent-extremism.

• Promote accountability. All stakeholders (including youth actors) of peacebuilding must be held accountable by each other for their actions and use of resources in order to ensure effectiveness of our activities.