Mongolia

20-21 June 2019, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Whole-of-Society-Approach to Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism

The Ulaanbaatar Conference has been an opportunity to exchange good practices and lessons learned in tackling violent extremism in the OSCE region and beyond. It aimed for policy makers, civil society and other relevant actors from across Asia and beyond to engage in an inter-regional dialogue promoting the development and implementation of effective, human rights-compliant and gender-sensitive strategies and policies to preventing and countering violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism.

The conference thematic focus facilitated a discussion about the importance of governments working with civil society, youth, religious and local community actors. The conference participants explored ways to find local solutions rooted in international human rights to prevent the emergence of violent extremism as well as to protect communities from terrorist recruitment.

The importance of these themes is reflected in several General Assembly and Security Council resolutions. General Assembly resolution 72/284 for the Sixth Review of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy recognised the role that civil society organisations, religious groups and community leaders can play in confronting the challenges of recruitment and radicalization to terrorism, including by promoting tolerance. It also underscored the importance of empowering youth, noting that children may be especially vulnerable to radicalization to violence. The Security Council in its resolution 2395 welcomed the role of relevant civil society, youth, and locally-focused actors in preventing and countering violent extremism conducive to terrorism.

The Ulaanbaatar Conference was the second UNOCT Regional Conference in a series of follow-up events to the first High-Level Conference on Counter-Terrorism that was convened in June 2018 in New York by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres. It was convened by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Counter-Terrorism Coordination Council of Mongolia in collaboration with the OSCE Secretariat and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism.