Community (SADC) Countries, including Mozambique, to prevent violent extremism and counter emerging terrorism threats including those posed by potential links with illicit trafficking in goods including drugs and other forms of criminality through strengthened criminal justice responses and increased awareness of national and local actors, women and youth
Other partners: Southern Africa Development Community (SADC); African Union’s Centre for Studies and Research on Terroris (CAERT); SADC national government institutions.
Synopsis
Objectives
The project aims to strengthen SADC countries’ capacity to prevent the spread of terrorism and violent extremism and bring terrorists to justice, through human rights-compliant criminal justice measures.
Components
The project strengthens Southern African Member States’ policy, legislative, and criminal justice responses to terrorism. It supports the development of Counterterrorism laws, inter-agency coordination, and operational capacity-building through training and mentoring. In Mozambique, it also raises awareness and builds capacity among youth, officials, researchers, and media to prevent and counter violent extremism online and in prisons.
Main achievements
This project assisted SADC Member States in strengthening their policy and legislative frameworks to address terrorism in a manner consistent with human rights and the rule of law. Support was provided at the national level through legislative and policy workshops for requesting countries, and at the regional level through workshops involving Angola, Botswana, The Democratic Republic of The Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
At the regional level, the project created important fora where senior national counterterrorism and criminal justice officials from participating countries, including SADC member jurisdictions, convened to discuss the evolving threats and challenges related to terrorism and violent extremism, as well as to explore opportunities for enhanced information-sharing and cooperation.
The project provided substantial support to the operationalization of the new SADC Regional Counterterrorism Centre, launched in February 2022 in Dar es Salaam.
At the national level, in Mozambique, significant improvements were made to counter-terrorism legislation. In Malawi, the government successfully drafted and adopted a National Strategy for Counterterrorism and Prevention of Violent Extremism and introduced terrorism-related offenses into the Penal Code. In The Democratic Republic of The Congo, substantive inputs were provided to the draft counter-terrorism law. Additionally, contributions were made to a draft national strategy on countering terrorism and violent extremism, submitted to the National Counter-Terrorism Coordination Committee. Overall, a total of 776 officials, including 193 women, benefited from the project’s activities.
Impact
The project strengthens SADC countries’ capacity to prevent terrorism and violent extremism and brings perpetrators to justice through human rights-compliant criminal justice measures. It led to key national reforms in Mozambique, a revised penal code and national CT/PVE strategy in Malawi, and progress on draft legislation and strategy in The Democratic Republic of the Congo.