20 September 2022
The GCTF “REMVE” Toolkit Initiative Leads, the United States and Norway, and the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ) — a GCTF Inspired Institution — hosted a side event on the margins of the Twentieth GCTF Coordinating Committee Meeting and the United Nations General Assembly High Level Week in New York.
Senior officials from the U.S. and Norway highlighted how governments are cooperating transnationally to address Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism (REMVE). Discussions focused on the GCTF REMVE Toolkit, which was presented to the GCTF Coordinating Committee the day before this side event. The primary objectives of the side event were (1) to highlight the full range of criminal justice tools that governments are using, including in coordination with civil society and community actors, to prevent and counter REMVE threats, (2) to examine how governments are cooperating transnationally in this area, (3) to identify tools that can enhance understanding of REMVE and responses to it, and (4) to highlight ongoing IIJ and GCTF activities.
TERMINOLOGY NOTE: 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.