SG: I am very much pleased to be joined by His Excellency Mr. Didier Burkhalter, Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

I want to sincerely thank the Swiss Government and Foreign Minister for co-hosting the Geneva Conference on Preventing Violent Extremism. 

I am greatly encouraged that so many Ministers and Heads of Regional and UN Organizations have come together to focus on solutions and share best practices to prevent violent extremism.  We have had extremely productive discussions this morning. 

Violent extremism is a direct assault on the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  It represents a grave threat to international peace and security.

The threat of violent extremism is not limited to any one religion, nationality or ethnic group.

In recent years, the international community’s response to violent extremism has centred on countering the threat.  But security and military actions alone cannot defeat this scourge.

These responses have their limits – sometimes they have even been counter-productive.

We need a more comprehensive and balanced approach that addresses the drivers of violent extremism. 

That is what this conference is about.  That is what my Plan of Action to prevent violent extremism is about. We have come together to address the long, hard and necessary road of prevention.

In January, I launched the UN Action Plan to Prevent Violent Extremism.

It provides a little over 70 practical recommendations and seven key priority areas to galvanize the international action to this fast evolving, multidimensional challenge.

The Plan calls on countries to forge National Plans of Action, engaging all of society in that effort.

This morning, I appealed to Ministers, Heads of International and Regional Organizations and representatives of Civil Society Organizations to demonstrate political vision, courage and leadership and, most of all, political will to come together to prevent violent extremism.

We need more dialogue and conflict prevention.  We need to foster human rights and the rule of law to prevent violence and protect people. We need to empower communities, women and youth if we want to make our societies stronger.

We need to better communicate our common values of peace, justice and inclusion against the division, intolerance and hatred spread by violent extremists. 

And we must put these values into action and forge a truly inclusive approach.

The UN Plan is not only a call to action, it is also a call to unity.

In the true spirit of the Charter of the United Nations, we must take united action now in order to save succeeding generations. We need to act quickly to restore a legacy of hope and promise to our youth.

Today we are sending an important message that the countries of the United Nations are united in action to prevent the scourge of violent extremism

Q: A question for the Secretary-General.  Just to understand what this means in practice, can you say, had this sort of action plan been in place five years ago, at the start of the Syrian war, how do you think the Syrian war and its consequences would have turned out differently?

SG: As you know, the United Nations has adopted ten years ago a global counter-terrorism strategy, and in fact, over this crisis, when the violence continued many, many years, it has been quite difficult to apply this counter-terrorism.  And finally, the coalition was formed, with the United States and Europe, and even Russia.  They have been making this coalition effort to defeat extremism and terrorism.  Then, when the Syrian conflict continued five years and six years, and there was no dialogue, and all the people lost hope.  And many people had to flee their home countries.  That has provided the perfect breeding ground for extremists and terrorists to take root in the society.   Now, ISIL/ Daesh and all other extremists are spreading like a cancer around the world.  That is why we thought that there must be a concerted, combined, and unified action by the international community.  We supported these coalition actions.  The coalition actions sometimes had collateral damages, many civilian people and civilian infrastructures have been damaged and destroyed, many people have been killed.  Sometimes it had become counterproductive and raised a lot of alarms and criticism from humanitarian and human rights groups.  That is why I think that what we, the United Nations believe, is that countering terrorism, preventing the drivers of extremism, should go together. 

But as far as I, the Secretary-General of the United Nations am concerned, I think we should invest and focus more on prevention.  When you have to counter terrorism and terrorists, it’s too late, it costs a lot of money, and it had already cost a lot in human casualties.  Therefore, let’s address the root causes, why foreign terrorist fighters join, and why these young people fall into the trap of these extremist ideas and ideologies.  That’s the main purpose, and we have proposed 79 recommendations.  This is an outcome document, after many years of intensive, very close coordination and consultation with the Member States and the Agencies, in dealing with terrorism and extremism.  Of course, this was very much welcomed, and I expect that in June, when the UN General Assembly [conducts] the fifth review of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism strategy, I hope this will be adopted by consensus by Member States for their application.

Q: Recently, there was an information on an attack with the use of chemical weapons in Aleppo.  Reportedly, Jaysh al-Islam, which is part of the cease-fire agreement, took responsibility for this attack.  How do you think these actions could impact the Intra-Syrian talks that tend to lay the ground for the fight against terrorism, the real fight against ISIS and al-Nusra?

SG: As you know, the United Nations has established a Commission of Inquiry and an investigation team two years ago, and we delivered this report, and all the chemical weapons which had been registered by the Syrian Government had all been destroyed.

Now, we have received the second such allegation and reports that chemical weapons might have been used again, and I established another investigation team, in close coordination with OPCW, the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons.  It has completed the first stage of the investigation, and now they are going to enter the second phase.  I received the report, but we may have to continue this.  We are very closely coordinated with the OPCW. 

As you know, at this time, what is a most serious concern is the possibility [that] terrorist or extremist groups could have some access to nuclear or chemical materials or even weapons.  That is the main purpose of the fourth summit in Washington, D.C. last week, organized by [US] President Obama, on nuclear security.  There were 52 Heads of State and Government who participated, and  they were all committed to work in unity, in solidarity, and by sharing intelligence and information, and working very closely among the countries to prevent such kind of situations where extremists and terrorism may have access to nuclear and chemical materials and weapons.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, why did you need 15 years to have a more balanced approach to terrorism after the attacks of September 11?  And if we have to create jobs in countries which produce extremists, isn’t that kind of a reward for extremism in front of the youth of other countries, which are more peaceful and democratic?

SG: Of course, 15 years ago there were terrorist attacks and terrorists, but not as often, not as many, not as widely spread as this.  We have to look at the reasons why it has led to the current situation.  With all this global transformative advancement in various areas, particularly with the social media, communications and transportation, it has been much easier for those terrorists and extremists to have access to modern technology.  They have almost all opportunities and technologies, which normal governments and people could not have.

This is one very important and serious issue: why this terrorism and extremism could spread rapidly.  There is a very serious issue of the lack of governance by national governments and communities, and a number of people who think they have been marginalized or eliminated, isolated from the society.

And for those vulnerable people, like young people who have no jobs, no social and economic opportunities and for women’s groups and girls, a lot of violence is happening, while the international community has not been able to effectively address the root causes of this.  That is the main reason why we can say that it is much different now, compared to 15 or 20 years ago.  This is why we are very seriously engaging on this at the global level.  I have welcomed and will welcome all national governments taking their own actions and taking strong ownership of their own actions.  Not a single country or an organization can handle this threat on their own, no matter how resourceful or powerful they may be, which is why I am asking the Member States of the United Nations to review very carefully 70-plus recommendations.  I don’t think that all 79 recommendations could be applicable to all Member States; there are recommendations which can be applied and applicable to each and every Member State.  What is important is unity and solidarity, and working together in unison.