What's happening at HSS?
Workshop on 'The role of youth to prevent terrorism and how to fight against extremism and radicalism', February 21 - 22, 2017 in Madaba / Jordan
Young people drive change, but they are not in the driver’s seat, a seat at the negotiating table when issues of national or international peace and security are discussed. Youth could have the strongest positive impact on the present and future, but when they face a dead end, their ambition turns into frustration used by violent groups to fuel their own agendas.
For this reason the 'Arab World Center for Democratic Development - UniHRD' and the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung in collaboration with the Ministry of Political and Parliamentary Affairs (MoPA) agreed to work intensive on how to fight terrorism (see previous article).
Violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism (VERLT) is a denial of democracy and of human rights. In order to effectively commit to the elimination of VERLT, it is crucial to invest more in prevention measures targeting young people, while including them in shaping of such measures.
To be successful requires a multidimensional approach, the involvement of all stakeholders in society and cooperation in order to develop feasible and effective prevention measures. Prevention by promoting dialogue and logical analysis is important to raise awareness among the young people, especially among those coming from villages that are marginalized as well as having a large number of Salafis and extremists.
To unleash young people's energy and idealism in working groups the participants were asked to design local initiatives taking into account the social inclusion of minority or disadvantaged groups with special attention to all religious groups to give young members of communities the feeling of belonging and equity. Furthermore question were discussed like "How can youth organizations become more concretely involved in anti-extremist strategies?" or "Is empowerment of youth to successfully develop and manage small and medium-sized enterprises as a poverty reduction measure a possible step in radicalization prevention?".
The workshop offered a platform for an open discussion between youth from various governorates and decision-makers as well as representatives from different Ministries and Security Devices.