The Toolkit on Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism (REMVE)*

The REMVE Toolkit, presented to the Twentieth GCTF Coordinating Committee in September 2022, builds on the April 2021 GCTF REMVE-focused Exploratory Dialogues held in coordination with the GCTF CVE Working Group, the United States and Norway, and existing GCTF Framework documents including the Memorandum on Good Practices on Strengthening National-Local Cooperation in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Conducive to Terrorism, the New York Memorandum on Good Practices for Interdicting Terrorist Travel, and the Antalya Memorandum on the Protection of Soft Targets in a Counterterrorism Context. The Toolkit also takes into consideration the Criminal Justice Practitioner’s Guide for Addressing REMVE, developed by the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ)—a GCTF Inspired Institution.  The development of this GCTF Toolkit was led by the United States and Norway with the support of the Asser Institute and Valens Global, who served as Implementing Partners for the Initiative.

Background

While GCTF Members and partners use different terms when discussing REMVE, all the terminology is meant to describe terrorism and terrorist attacks perpetrated by individuals or groups who promote/conduct violence in the name of defending against perceived threats to their racial/ethnic identities and/or ensuring the superiority/supremacy thereof. The Toolkit was developed by the United States and Norway to assist GCTF Members and other stakeholders with developing strategies to counteract, disrupt, and deter REMVE.

The Toolkit on REMVE

The Toolkit is a non-binding document that provides practical guidance and strategies to prevent, deter, disrupt, counteract, respond to, and prosecute REMVE threats. It aims to strengthen the abilities of GCTF Members and additional stakeholders, including GCTF non-member states, civil society organizations, and the private sector, to develop and implement counter-REMVE strategies, policies, and programs that reflect relevant GCTF good practices and respect relevant domestic and international law. The GCTF’s non-binding recommendations should be considered in light of each state’s circumstances, domestic laws and policies, and their international legal obligations and commitments, including those under international human rights law, international refugee law, and international humanitarian law, as applicable.

The Toolkit is also available in Arabic and French.

*GCTF Members and experts use a number of different expressions to describe REMVE and interrelated threats. These include “racially or ethnically motivated terrorism,” “ideologically motivated violent extremism,” “right-wing terrorism,” “far-right terrorism,” “extreme-right terrorism,” “violent right-wing extremism,” and “white supremacist terrorism,” “terrorism on the basis of xenophobia,” and “terrorism in the name of religion or belief,” among others. At the international level, “violent incidents often underpinned by racial, ethnic, political, and ideological motivations” have been expressly outlined as aspects of  “terrorist attacks on the basis of xenophobia, racism and other forms of intolerance, or in the name of religion or belief” (XRIRB). Despite differences in terminology, each of these expressions describes attacks perpetrated by individuals or groups in the name of defending against perceived threats to their racial or ethnic identity or ensuring the superiority/supremacy thereof.