“Towards an alliance of European cities against violent extremism”- International Conference of Local Authorities on the Prevention of Radicalisation Leading to Violent Extremism – (Aarhus, 18 November 2015)

Elements of conclusions by Leen Verbeek, Vice-President of the Congress and Guilherme Pinto, President of the European Forum for Urban Security (EFUS)

Closing Session: Strengthening local authorities and a human rights-based approach to confronting/facing violent extremism in a European alliance

Aarhus (Denmark), 18 November 2015

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I. A rich day of European local authorities working together on the challenges of radicalisation leading to violent extremism

   

100 participants:

- local elected officials, practitioners and experts,

- representing 40 local authorities from 21 countries,

- associations of local authorities, thematic networks and government units working with local authorities

3 very rich sessions of exchange, discussion and joint work of how to take things forward on:

- the challenges for local authorities and how they face them

- other stakeholder’s view, advise, expectations and support

- local and regional strategies and their link to national and European levels of governance

Quite broad overview of issues, many aspects and facets touched upon:

- many promising ideas, initiatives and practices

- still many things to be done

II. Three main conclusions

Trying draw conclusions from all that was said during the day, 3 key issues seem to be of particular importance:

1. The central role of local authorities and the need to support and strengthen them in preventing radicalisation leading to violent extremism

2. The need to guarantee individual liberties and avoid dividing communities and the importance of fostering a human rights-based approach

3. The added value of European local authorities joining forces and working together to counter violent extremism

A few minutes to develop why these conclusions and what they concretely mean:

1. The central role of local authorities and the need to support and strengthen them in preventing radicalisation leading to violent extremism

Conference confirmed that local authorities are on the front line when it comes to preventing radicalisation to violent extremism;

-> it showed that countering violent extremism also needs prevention, which is best organised and delivered at the local level, and that radicalisation can be best contained at a level closest to the vulnerable individuals in the most affected communities

-> it showed that local authorities have a key role to play when it comes to raising awareness among local stakeholders and civil society and to mobilising towns and cities against violent extremism

   

-> it showed that local authorities can make an important contribution in the fight against violent extremism by putting in place local multi-agency strategies and integrating the fight against radicalisation into an integrated, overall prevention strategy; local authorities can provide the institutional infrastructure and the necessary coordination to successfully counter violent extremisms

-> it showed that local authorities have means to directly counter violent extremism by

- informing and educating with particular attention to topics such as respect for cultural diversity, human rights and the harmfulness of hate speech,

- working with youth on building up resilience amongst youth

- working with and supporting families

- backing initiative to disseminate counter narratives

- supporting exit programs for individuals willing to leave extremism

The conference showed many promising initiatives and practices, but also that local authorities are currently still working on these issue. While certain towns and cities are quite advanced and others only starting, there are still many questions amongst all of them, especially on “how to” actually put actions like those mentioned above in place and “how to” make them successful.

-A key issue that arose is that of the adequate training for different local actors involved.

-Others included that of identifying credible partners,

- the organisation of effective multi-level cooperation or

- the terms of exchanging information.

We can conclude that that preventing radicalisation leading to violent extremism necessarily requires local authorities and yet further strengthening their capacity to do so.

2) The need to guarantee individual liberties and avoid dividing communities and the importance of fostering a human rights-based approach

The indivisibility of fundamental rights must be preserved in the fight against all types of violent extremism.

• As underlined during todays discussion and as underlined by the Congress as well as Efus, it is crucial to maintain both security and freedom, which are in fact mutually dependent, and hence to refuse to choose between one and the other.

• In the face of terror, political reaction must not be guided by emotion but rather based on rational analysis and evidence.

• This also entails the need to communicate in a balanced and responsible manner, in particular by stressing the importance of cohesion and avoiding the stigmatisation of any population group.

Our discussion today showed - political leadership is key in this context

• Local elected officials are indispensable for mobilising European cities against violent extremism.

• They also give the tone and a can provide the necessary balanced communication. They have to explain the complex issue of radicalisation.

• They are in a position to promote social cohesion, to proactively ensure understanding between different groups.

• They are responsible for developing an inclusive narrative for their city.

While we have seen examples of courageous political leaders during the day, not all local elected officials feel that they are ready to take on this role. There is still an important demand from local elected officials to obtain support in preparing for this role.

• Working together with other European local authorities and raising awareness on existing promising practice are important instruments to strengthen the capacity of local authorities.

• Assuming political leadership against violent extremism also implies allocating the necessary funds. Many European local authorities already invest in the prevention of radicalisation and fostering a human rights-based approach.

• Though the scope of the challenge could in many cases require additional means.

• In this challenge local authorities can’t stand alone and also need the support from regional, national and European levels of government.

We can conclude that a human rights-based approach to urban security is of particular importance when it comes to the prevention of radicalisation, and that this approach can be fostered in by supporting local elected officials.

3) The added value of European local authorities joining forces and working together to counter violent extremism

The conference has definitely confirmed the interest of European local authorities in joining forces

• to stand together against violent extremism

• to learn from each other

• to support each other

• to develop together European local authorities responses to radicalisation

As already mentioned, many participants have expressed the added value of working together with other European local authorities for their for their local CVE activities.

It became also clear that the work against radicalisation is a long process that needs mid and long-term endurance, in which support is needed.

Our third and final conclusions is therefore the wish of European local authorities to work together on the prevention of radicalisation leading to violent extremism and the interest in forming an alliance of European cities against violent extremism.

III. The way forward: Towards an alliance of European cities against violent extremism

Based on these conclusions of conference, the way forward should be an alliance of European cities against violent extremism that we propose to create.

We invite all conference participants and especially the host cities Aarhus and Rotterdam, all the members of the Congress and the European Forum and all European local authorities sharing the conclusions of our conference to continue our work against violent extremism in such an alliance of European local authorities.

The alliance of European cities against violent extremism aims at mobilising and strengthening European local and regional authorities at the political level and technical level. It will be a platform to facilitate inter-city cooperation on the prevention of radicalisation leading to violent extremism.

Instead of initiating our alliance with a new institution to be filled with life, will launched it by providing content and a set of activities around which cooperation can be institutionalised.

A central idea of the alliance is to but to build on the existing. It wants to cooperate and  coordinate with existing structures, initiatives and networks in order to provide European local authorities with an exchange platform and a network of activities and offers that will suite their various needs.
In this respect we hope to further develop the cooperation with the international Strong Cities Network partner of the conference as well as the EU Radicalisation Awareness Network which has also contributed to our conference and which also wants now to work with local authorities.

At its start the alliance of cities against violent extremism can build on two established European organisations, the Congress of local and regional authorities and the European Forum for urban security, which have worked  for years to bring together local and regional authorities around human rights and urban security issues.

The Congress and Efus propose to begin the activities of the alliance by building on already planned (and already funded) activities of the Congress and Efus and subsequently add further activities.

The alliance can in particular be able to build on the activities envisaged in the Congress Resolution 381 (2015) and Recommendation 371 (2015) on “Combatting radicalisation at grassroots level: the role of local and regional authorities” and the Efus projects LIAISE and LIAISE 2 (“Local Institutions Against Extremism”), which received financial support from the European Commission.

Concretely, a first series of activities is already lined up:

• We will firstly provide a conference report before the end of the year

• LIAISE training and guide: A first group of local authorities is already engaged in a series of training session as part of the Local Institutions of Against Extremism project of the European Forum. Co-financed by the European Commission and in cooperation with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue,  they will get together for training sessions in Brussels and Vilvoorde 10-11 December 2015 and in Malmö 15-16 February 2016. They will also  produce a guidebook at the disposal of all authorities in the first semester 2016.

• As part of its strategy the Congress will in its Spring session in March 2016 in Strasbourg launch a “Pedagogical toolkit for use by local elected representatives when organising intercultural and inter-faith activities” and provide local authorities with updated relevant European texts.

• LIAISE2  thematic conference 2016-2017: Starting in spring 2016, Efus will be able to build on the above mentioned work undertaken in the LIAISE project  and propose wit the renewed support of the European Commission a series of five European thematic seminars on aspects of the prevention of radicalisation that also aim at contributing to creating a European network of local authorities. (The seminars will be complemented with local training and pilot activities in the 28 partner organisation in 11 European countries.

• Moreover, these activities will most likely be linked and complemented with the upcoming activities of the Strong Cities Network to take place in Europe in Spring 2016 and the new series of activities with local authorities of the EU radicalisation Awareness.

So we are looking forward to seeing you very soon at these events and propose to stay in contact via the website www.citiesagainstextremism.eu

IV. Adoption of the conference declaration

V. Closing words:

Final words

Mayor of Aarhus

• Conference next day “Building resilience to radicalisation and violent extremism – a multi agency approach on early prevention”

• Invitation to the reception at the city hall