General Assembly Meeting: UN Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism

Statement by Michael Bonser, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations

New York, February 12, 2016

Canada welcomes and strongly supports this initiative of the Secretary-General. The UN is uniquely placed to bring coherence and coordination to international efforts to address violent extremism.

This Plan of Action recognizes that addressing violent extremism is complex and requires a comprehensive response, which must go well beyond traditional security thinking, engaging social institutions and policy areas.

Addressing the conditions conducive to violent extremism through proactive investments and prevention efforts is essential. Canada’s counter-terrorism strategy recognizes this: one of its pillars seeks to address the factors that may motivate individuals to engage in terrorist activities, preventing radicalization to violence from happening in the first place, and reducing the threat and likelihood of costly intervention at a later stage. We welcome greater international focus in this area.

This Plan of Action’s comprehensive approach makes the important linkage between deficits in governance and human rights and factors that can motivate radicalization to violence. Inclusive and accountable governance fosters peaceful pluralism and diversity. Safeguarding human rights, promoting tolerance and pluralism, and reducing inequality must therefore be at the forefront of efforts to prevent violent extremism.

Canada fully supports all seven priority areas identified in the plan. In addition to the focus on good governance and human rights, we share the view that promoting education, empowering youth and incorporating our young people as a part of the solution are essential to preventing violent extremism. Pursuing these objectives will have many positive effects. Preventing violent extremism will be but one beneficial outcome.

Other areas of engagement can also usefully inform our efforts to prevent violent extremism, such as conflict-sensitive international development efforts.  Canada is actively engaged in building a comprehensive approach to addressing the drivers of violence, maintaining the goal of inclusive development for all, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 16.

As the Plan correctly recognizes, action to address violent extremism must be taken within member states, at national and local levels, in order to be effective. Active community engagement, through dialogue, is essential. In Canada, authorities at all levels are already engaged in these areas.

Canada also recognizes that prevention efforts require input from non-government actors, such as civil society and community organizations, as is outlined in the Plan of Action. The most effective approach to preventing radicalization to violence is not top-down; rather, it begins in communities and involves working with local leaders to develop early intervention programs.

We support the call for the development of National Action Plans. Canada is already engaged in a process to bring together our efforts in this area. Our government has committed to creating an office dedicated to community outreach and counter-radicalization to provide national leadership on this issue. And we are developing a national strategy on countering radicalization to violence.

As called for in the Plan of Action, Canada will continue to support regional bodies and member states in developing their capacity to address the drivers of violent extremism. Canadian capacity-building efforts seek to strengthen community resilience against radicalization to violence, strengthen and amplify voices seeking to counter extremist narratives and build national responses for the reintegration of foreign terrorist fighters.

Canada fully supports the All-of-UN approach outlined in the Plan. Ensuring coherence throughout the UN system’s efforts will be crucial for its effective implementation. Moreover, we will need to ensure that the UN’s efforts in this field are also closely coordinated with ongoing work in other fora, to avoid duplication of efforts. The Global Counterterrorism Forum, for instance, has done valuable work on community engagement and community policing.

We look forward to working together with the Secretariat and the international community to explore the best ways we can ensure effective implementation of this Plan of Action. This will require the development of provisions for accountability and review.

We will welcome a more detailed examination of the specifics of the Plan of Action’s implementation, including ideas for priority-setting and accountability, at the appropriate venue. Canada looks forward to the upcoming Conference on the Plan of Action in Geneva.