Overview
The experience of UNICRI in supporting Member States to build effective rehabilitation programmes for violent extremists has highlighted the need to further enhance reintegration measures within and beyond custodial settings.
Results in Brief
Since 2012 UNICRI has been supporting Member States, upon request, in their efforts to build effective rehabilitation programmes for violent extremist offenders (VEOs) to ensure that prisons are not serving as hotbeds of radicalization.
Cooperation with Member States (Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, the Philippines and Thailand) has been established to develop different rehabilitation pathways according to the local context and needs.
WHAT IS THE ISSUE WE ARE DEALING WITH?
Despite best efforts to counter terrorism, it does not seem to either diminish or be contained. While mainly hard-security measures have generally been used to fight terrorist groups, there is a growing global consensus on the need to understand what attracts young people to join violent extremist groups so as to prevent their radicalisation and better counter the threat of terrorism.
In late 2022, the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) launched a two-year project aimed at building gender-sensitive resilience to violent extremism in the Sahel, supported by the generous contribution of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Information on the Grant Beneficiary within the Scope of European Union (EU) Contribution Agreement for the project “Transparency Now: Strengthening Anti-Corruption Efforts in the EU Southern Neigbourhood.”
There is increasing recognition that terrorists can benefit from organized crime, whether domestic or transnational, through trafficking in arms, persons, drugs, cultural property, the illicit exploitation and trafficking of natural resources such as oil, precious metals and minerals, as well as timber, charcoal, and wildlife, the abuse of legitimate commercial enterprise, non-profit organizations, external donations, crowdfunding and proceeds of criminal activity, including kidnapping for ransom, extortion, bank robbery, as well as transnational organized crime at sea.