Civil society perspectives: ISIL in Africa - Key trends and developments

• Inadequate exit strategies and support provided to former terrorists after they leave reintegration programmes, leading them to consider re-joining terrorist groups. 

• Lack of compensation and support for victims and local populations (particularly women) disproportionately affected by terrorism and counter-terrorism. 

• Insufficient criminal justice response mechanisms in most affected States.

• Failure of the relevant authorities to take advantage of the positive role that civil society, community, and women can play in preventing terrorism, building resilience, and reintegrating former fighters.

• Insufficient coordination of P/CVE initiatives between the national and community levels, which undermines efforts to understand and better support communities and families.

1.    For Governments and relevant authorities:

• Consistently protect and respect human rights in counter-terrorism and CVE initiatives, including by thoroughly investigating and ensuring justice for past abuses.
• Find the appropriate balance between over-securitized measures and under-securitized responses.
• Develop comprehensive responses which address the underlying causes of violent extremism conducive to terrorism and strengthen resilience while also attending to the humanitarian, psychological, and other needs of people impacted by terrorism.
• In close partnership with local communities, women, youth, and other relevant groups, create and implement gender and age-appropriate CVE processes and psychological support programmes for victims and persons associated with terrorism. 
• Conduct scoping visits to States with Screening, Prosecution, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (SPRR) frameworks to assist in the design and implementation of comprehensive national strategies to deal with FTFs, which include provision for alternatives to imprisonment (including traditional justice mechanisms). 
• Provide meaningful and equitable skills to men and women to enable them to successfully reintegrate into communities and share the strategies employed with interested partners. 
• Address various types of criminality (including the flow of SALW) by strengthening border controls between States and between North Africa and West Africa.
• Employ whole-of-Government and whole-of-society approaches and strengthen coordination of all relevant counter-terrorism-related actions by the relevant actors.
• Engage in dialogue with fighters and terrorist groups, including through respected local community and religious leaders, in areas where confidence in Government is lacking. 

2.    For international aid and capacity-building partners: 

• Provide comprehensive human rights support to Governments (including clear evidence on the practical implications of human rights violations on communities) to facilitate a culture change within security forces. 
• Provide international human rights training to relevant government authorities on evidentiary requirements in terrorism cases and other aspects to facilitate the delivery of justice for human rights abuses; facilitate the provision of basic assistance to victims; and help build trust between the military and criminal justice arms of Government.
• Support the building of civil society capacity to strengthen expertise in various areas, including by providing psychosocial support, SPRR support, and support in handling FTFs. 
• Sensitize security forces to the benefits of including communities in counter-terrorism responses and the need to understand and build trust with communities as part of the response. 
• Promote the development of other justice mechanisms for terrorism situations, such as transitional justice mechanisms and reparations, alongside the criminal justice system. 
• Develop partnerships with local and community-based organizations to implement counter-terrorism programming and enhance community ownership.
• Work with communities to achieve behavioural and attitudinal changes in order to deter them from advocating harsh punishments, such as extrajudicial killings, for terrorists. 

3.    For CTED:

• In partnership with Governments and research entities, promote research to better understand the nuances of radicalization, recruitment, and other aspects of violent extremism conducive to terrorism in affected communities, where gaps exist.
• Work closely with States to enhance their understanding of the importance of collaboration with CSOs in counter-terrorism and CVE.
• Assess whether States have mechanisms in place to compensate victims as part of their counter-terrorism measures and encourage the introduction of such mechanisms within the framework of the recommendations emanating from Counter-Terrorism Committee assessment visits.
• Convey policy recommendations through appropriate knowledgeable and influential government channels to promote implementation of the necessary actions. 
• Highlight the need to prioritize efforts to protect children in terrorism situations.
• Continue to engage with African States that are not yet affected or severely affected by terrorism, emphasizing context-specific conditions that can be conducive to terrorism and sharing lessons learned from other States to enable them to take preventive measures against terrorism.