Prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration strategies in the Lake Chad Basin virtual side event for second United Nations Counter-Terrorism Week
“Towards sustainable peace: implementing screening, prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration strategies in the Lake Chad Basin, a regional and national challenge”
28 June 2021 | 1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m. (EST)
#LakeChadBasin #PRR #BokoHaram
Across the Lake Chad Basin, whole communities have been, and continue to be, deeply affected. Boko Haram exploits existing gender inequality, conducting mass abductions of women and girls, forcing marriages, perpetrating sexual violence and exploitation, and exploiting women and children to carry out improvised explosive attacks. Ongoing attacks have created a perpetual state of insecurity. Over the past few years, thousands of individuals alleged to be associated with Boko Haram have ended up in the custody of national authorities, raising difficult questions related to the best ways to build sustainable solutions and manage multiple interests: including promoting defections from Boko Haram, ensuring accountability for crimes, supporting victims, protecting communities, and preventing returns to and recruitment by Boko Haram, among others. Ensuring respect for fundamental human rights and fair and efficient processes regarding these persons, sensitive to the conflict environment and experience of both communities and persons, that are gender responsive and age appropriate, is critical to comprehensively addressing the problem of terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin.
The Security Council has advanced comprehensive, whole-of-Government and whole-of-society approaches, emphasizing the need to respect human rights and international law to deal with these challenges. Following resolution 1373 (2001) that requires Member States to ensure that any person who participates in the preparation or perpetration of terrorist acts is brought to justice, resolution 2178 (2014) developed prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration strategies for returning foreign terrorist fighters; and resolution 2349 (2017), which focuses on the Lake Chad Basin, and resolution 2396 (2017) called upon Member States to develop comprehensive and tailored strategies to prosecute, rehabilitate and reintegrate suspected individuals whom the authorities have reasonable grounds to believe are terrorists. Under the leadership of the Lake Chad Basin Commission and the African Union at the regional level, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria have taken steps to conduct individual assessments and orient individuals to the most appropriate form of intervention or support, as needed, whether prosecution, rehabilitation or reintegration, or a combination of the latter, as needed. A regional approach to screening, prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration (SPRR), championed by the Lake Chad Basin Commission and adopted as part of the Regional Strategy for the Stabilization, Recovery and Resilience of Boko Haram-affected areas of the Lake Chad Basin Region, has strengthened these efforts.
A joint UNOCT/UNCCT, UNODC and CTED program is underway to support Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria to develop and implement strategies for the screening, prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration of Boko Haram-associated persons, in a harmonized manner at the regional level and in compliance with international requirements and regional frameworks.
The side event will register progress, take stock of current efforts and challenges, and consider next steps. It will also highlight potential lessons that can be useful for other regions of the world.
Interpretation will be provided between English and French.
The concept note and agenda for the virtual side event is available here.
You can register here: https://forms.office.com/r/60zETnhn9G.
Read these materials in French.