Addressing Violent Extremism: Creating Space for Civil Society

GPoT Center’s Director, Dr. Mensur Akgün, and Deputy Director Dr. Sylvia Tiryaki attended the conference “Addressing violent extremism: Creating space for civil society”, a side event on the occasion of the UN General Assembly review of the Global Counterterrorism Strategy, which was held at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York on June 26th, 2012.

Civil society representatives from all around the world participated in the event, making for a total of 38 different NGO’s. Other than the representatives of Permanent Missions to the United Nations, the conference included United Nations Agencies (such as Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate [CTED], United Nations Refugee Agency [UNHCR], UN Alliance of Civilizations [UN AOC], Peacebuilding Support Office [PBSO], Ombudsman of the Security Council’s 1267 Committee, UN SC 1267 Committee, UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute [UNICRI], and UNESCO). Yet other agencies and organizations, including the International Organization for Migration [IOM] or Global Human Rights Fund were also amongst the participants.

The conference was organized by The Civil Society Network for Human Security, a global collective civil society platform working to more effectively counter violent extremism. In doing so, it aims at connecting transnational organizations and states with local civil society organizations, engaging policy makers, state actors, and inter-regional bodies.

The Civil Society Network for Human Security platform is initiated by the Dutch development organization Cordaid and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), a global network of civil society organizations working actively in the field of conflict prevention and peacemaking.