| Description: |
South Asia has suffered from a significant degree of violence due to longstanding political conflicts, with groups espousing a range of causes, including national self-determination, ethno-nationalist separatism, left- and right- wing politics and religious extremism. In particular, there has been a dramatic increase in terrorist and violent extremist activities in South Asia, with over 13,000 incidents since 2002. The Global Terrorism Index has also ranked three countries in South Asia among those with the highest incidence of terrorism – Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. This increase reflects the nature of contemporary terrorism, which has contributed to the changing rhetoric and scope of the security challenge in South Asia. Terrorist and violent extremist groups have exploited cross-border ethnic and cultural ties, common historical experiences, globalized financial and commercial networks, and new communication platforms to increase their reach and influence beyond the local to the national, regional, and even international levels. In addition, widespread development challenges, porous borders, and weak governance in many areas have exacerbated the terrorist threat regionally.
The increasingly regional scope of the terrorist threat underscores the critical importance of developing a comprehensive regional approach to terrorism and violent extremism – one that is both preventive and responsive, and undertaken by a wide range of actors, including from development, security, governance, and peacebuilding. Among this approach is countering violent extremism (CVE), which aims to reduce the appeal and recruiting capacities of terrorist groups, and strengthening community resilience in the face of violent extremism. CVE involves a wide range of initiatives including developing messaging and communication campaigns to counter the violent extremist ideologies and narratives, training for law enforcement officials, heightening CVE awareness among civil society groups, and building the capacities of financial, criminal justice, and rule of law institutions. Rule of law-based institutions, in particular, have a critical role to play in preventing terrorism and countering violent extremism as negative experiences with law enforcement and other state officials, for example, can contribute to grievances and create an enabling environment for extremist groups to recruit support.
Civil society actors have a particularly valuable role to play in efforts to strengthen rule of law efforts to counter terrorism and violent extremism and strengthening community resilience through advocacy, training, and enhancing the delivery of security services. They can also provide information, analyses, and training to law enforcement officials, as well as play a monitoring role regarding law enforcement measures and be powerful advocates for civil and political rights. Within South Asia, civil society has played an important role in many areas spanning the security and development spectrum, including human rights, government accountability, education, family planning, gender empowerment, and conflict prevention. In many cases, civil society organizations have served to monitor governments and law enforcement to ensure greater responsiveness and transparency.
This workshop, organized by the Global Center on Cooperative Security, the Institute for Inclusive Security (IIS), and the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), with support from the government of Norway, aims to further explore the role of civil society in strengthening and supporting rule of law-based institutions in their efforts to prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism in South Asia. The workshop is intended to provide a platform for regional experts and practitioners, civil society members, and officials with the opportunity to exchange insights, experiences, lessons learned, and good practices and explore existing gaps in strengthening rule of law-based institutions to address these threats, with a view to increasing regional security cooperation. |
