On the 8 - 9 December 2011 at The Hague, the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) and the Dutch International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) will hold the Conference on "Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Violent Extremist Offenders."
The event is organized within the UNICRI Center on Policies to Counter the Appeal of Terrorism, aiming at facilitating the creation of networks, the exchange of information and good practices, and at promoting capacity-building in the development of activities to prevent pathways into terrorism and violent extremism through detection, rehabilitation and reintegration programs.
The Conference, focusing on rehabilitation and reintegration of violent extremist offenders, is a unique chance for participants - more than one hundred, from all over the world - to share their experience, best practices and lessons learned. Over the two days, presentation topics will include: the issue of violent radicalization and violent radicalized individuals; the evaluation of existing experiences with terrorist groups; and the role of former violent extremists, victims, families and community leaders in this process.
Following these presentations, workshops will focus on addressing psychological and religious issues, socioeconomic support and aftercare, institutional setting and legal issues and the relevance of good practices and insights from different regions.
The Conference is a follow-up to the first international workshop "Upstream prevention, Downstream Disengagement, Rehabilitation and Reintegration", on measures to prevent and combat the appeal of terrorism, organized by UNICRI in May 2011.
UNICRI as a member of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF), collects and analyzes governmental and local policies and promotes the exchange of information to strengthen the capacity of countries to counter the appeal of terrorism. The initiative UNICRI is developing aims at putting together a wide range of policymakers, practitioners and other relevant stakeholders, from countries engaged in countering the appeal of terrorism, to facilitate the building of networks at regional at local levels and the sharing of good practices.
Participating countries have the benefit of accessing a collaborative information database and to be informed of the experience of other countries. The information network resource provides valuable lessons for countries that are in the earliest stages of their programs' development as well as for countries that are working to improve and strengthen their existing programs. The initiative promotes research to improve the understanding of different aspects of countering the appeal of terrorism.
UNICRI Director, Jonathan Lucas, has said "The UNICRI and ICCT Conference represents an important opportunity to discuss and improve knowledge of deradicalization related issues and to enlarge the network of partners who can contribute to this very innovative programme."
The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) - The Hague and The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) Dedicate their meeting to Dr. Christopher Boucek (1973 - 2011) Admired colleague and friend, you will be deeply missed
For more information on the Conference on Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Violent Extremist Offenders please contact Mr. Alberto Contaretti at contaretti@unicri.it
UNICRI and ICCT dedicate their meeting to Dr. Christopher Boucek (1973 - 2011) Admired colleague and friend, you will be deeply missed
UNICRI Director Dr. Jonathan Lucas and ICCT - The Hague Director Mr. Peter Knoope announced at the opening of the December 6-9 UNICRI/ICCT meeting on the "Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Violent Extremist Offenders: Good Practices and Lessons Learned," that the session would be dedicated to the memory of Dr. Christopher Boucek, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who sadly passed away unexpectedly on November 2. Dr. Boucek was considered one of the leading experts in this field in the world, and Dr. Lucas and Mr. Knoope stated that his deep knowledge, unique insights and ground-breaking research would be greatly missed. Mr. Knoope said he was looking forward to having Dr. Boucek participate in the meeting in The Hague, and continuing to play a key role throughout the course of this initiative. We would like to acknowledge that we will all miss Dr. Boucek's presence here with us today and his contributions to the project. As such, we dedicate this conference to him today to honour his legacy. Dr. Boucek participated in the launch event of this UNICRI/ICCT initiative in Lucca, Italy, in May and, as Dr Lucas stated, was a "major contributor to the success of that session, which helped lay the groundwork for the expansion of the project into technical assistance". Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the US State Department - one of the major supporters of this project - called Boucek a "pioneer in this field, who knew more about rehabilitation programs than almost anyone else out there." The passing of our admired colleague is a terrible loss and Dr. Boucek's expertise will be greatly missed at this conference and in future projects. UNICRI and ICCT would like to express their sincere condolences to the Boucek family for their tragic loss.
