Limiting unintended harm in preventing and countering violent extremism focus of OSCE-organized workshop

Twenty OSCE staff members from South-Eastern Europe and Central Asia participated in a two-part interactive workshop on limiting unintended harm in preventing and countering violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism (P/CVERLT). The workshop was organized by the Action against Terrorism Unit of the OSCE Transnational Threats Department on 18 and 25 May 2022.

The “Do No Harm” workshop had a dual focus of encouraging a practice of self-reflection on one’s position about others while working with community stakeholders (e.g. looking into questions of identity, status, biases) and discussing effective strategies to limit unintended harm when addressing violent extremism.

The workshop has been implemented under the OSCE Leaders against Intolerance and Violent Extremism (LIVE) Initiative, a flagship training programme that seeks to build the resilience and capacity of communities. LIVE promotes context-specific efforts developed and led by women, youth and community leaders against violent extremism. The programme provided a platform for these active P/CVERLT practitioners to build OSCE internal capacity and encourage an internal expert exchange on the Do No Harm approach in P/CVERLT and harvest the experience and insights of key staff who work in this area.

The OSCE’s LIVE Initiative consists of three different training courses tailored to youth, women and community leaders across the OSCE area. From 2018 to 2021, the Action against Terrorism Unit of the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, in co-operation with the OSCE field operations, delivered a series of regional LIVE train-the-trainer seminars for South-Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and supported OSCE field operations in their implementation of national LIVE training courses.