The Criminal Justice and Rule of Law Working Group’s achievements and future priorities.
The Awareness Raising & Operationalizing the GCTF "Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism (REMVE)”* Toolkit Initiative leads, the United States and Norway, recently held a two-day workshop, hosted by Norway, 19-20 June 2024, in Oslo and at Utøya, where a far right extremist on 22nd July 2011 conducted domestic terrorist attacks that killed 77 individuals.
The interactive workshop brought a variety of stakeholders together to further enhance the GCTF REMVE Toolkit’s good practices and recommendations. The interactive workshop allowed participants to exchange perspectives on the rapidly evolving REMVE threats conducive to terrorism and draw lessons learned from Nordic countries’ experiences with REMVE.
The West Africa Capacity-Building Working Group (WA WG) Co-Chairs, Algeria and Germany, hosted the WA WG’s Fifth Plenary Meeting in Cotonou, Benin from 11 to 13 June 2024, with the support of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as their implementing partner. The meeting brought together regional and international partners to consult on the priority areas for counterterrorism capacity-building in the region for the coming two years.
On 11 and 12 June, the GCTF Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems and New, Emerging, and Disruptive Technologies Initiative held a virtual exploratory dialogue on the terrorist use of AI and its impact on transnational threats and unmanned systems. The dialogue is a foundation to support international partners in their counterterrorism work by increasing understanding of threats and identify appropriate mitigations.
On 4 June, the Initiative Leads, Germany and Kenya, held an interactive virtual workshop with key experts and practitioners to discuss evidence on the nexus between climate fragility and vulnerability NS violent extremism conducive to terrorism.
The GCTF Criminal Justice and Rule of Law Working Group (CJ-RoL WG), co-chaired by Italy and Nigeria, with the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ) as the Implementing Partner, organized an expert meeting to discuss existing good practices to protect witnesses and justice officials participating in terrorism cases’ proceedings. The one-day expert meeting was followed by the second Plenary Meeting of the Working Group under the auspices of its Co-Chairs.
On 25 April, the GCTF Initiative on Education for the Prevention and Countering of Violent Extremism Conducive to Terrorism, led by the European Union and Morocco, with Hedayah as Implementing Partner, held a Thematic Expert Workshop in Brussels, Belgium. The workshop enabled GCTF Members and experts to exchange insights, share best practices, and explore innovative approaches to education as a valuable tool to prevent and counter violent extremism conducive to terrorism (P/CVE).
On 16 and 17 April, the GCTF Border Security and Management (BSM) Initiative Leads Jordan, the United States and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), convened the second BSM Initiative workshop in Rome, Italy, to continue to develop the Addendum to the 2016 GCTF Good Practices in the Area of Border Security and Management. The Initiative aims to promote an inclusive and collaborative approach towards border security, grounded in respect for human rights and the rule of law.