OSCE organizes first seminar on community-policing approaches to countering violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism in Mongolia

ULAANBAATAR, 6 July 2017 - A two-day national seminar on a community-policing approach to countering violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism (VERLT), organized by the OSCE, concluded today in Ulaanbaatar. The seminar was the first of its kind to be held in Mongolia. 

The seminar brought together some 70 participants, including representatives of state agencies and civil society of Mongolia, and experts from Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Kyrgyzstan, the Netherlands, Spain, the United States of America, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, and the Action against Terrorism Unit of the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threat Department.

The participants discussed the importance of community engagement as well as police-public co-operation and trust-building in tackling challenges related to VERLT in a coherent and preventative manner.

“Mongolia seeks to develop action plans on countering violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism,” said Batmunkh Battsetseg, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Member of the National Counter Terrorism Coordinative Council (NCTCC). “The role of civil society and youth will be essential to apply a successful whole-of-society approach to counter this phenomenon.”

The experts shared perspectives and experiences on approaches to countering VERLT through co-operative approaches between the police and local communities. Issues such as the engagement of youth, women and religious leaders were highlighted with the aim of exploring how Mongolia can best involve all stakeholders to come up with prevention and response measures to potential terrorist radicalization in the country. A separate session focused on human rights-compliant approaches to preventing and countering VERLT on the Internet.

The seminar followed consultations held between the National Counter-Terrorism Co-ordination Council of Mongolia and the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department in 2016. The Mongolian Authorities expressed an interest and need for support to national law enforcement agencies and relevant institutions from the non-governmental sector in building the capabilities of practitioners to effectively respond to VERLT-related threats in compliance with human rights and the rule of law.