Call for participants: How to prevent and mitigate anti-government extremism at the local level? Restoring normality, rebuilding trust and networks at the local level

This meeting will take place online via WebEx on Monday 06 March in the afternoon from 13.00 – 16.00 (CET) and Friday 10 March in the morning from 9.30 – 12.30 (CET). This meeting will be held in English.

Aim of the meeting

The aim of this meeting is to exchange experiences and examples of the prevention and countering work aimed at mitigating the effects of anti-government extremism at the local level. Participants will discuss which experiences and options are available on the local level to build resilience and restore trust in the (local) governments. The meeting also aims to collect a list of dos and don’ts for local authorities when dealing with anti-government extremism and sentiments.

Context

The issue of anti-government sentiments and their possible escalation to violent extremism has previously been addressed in several RAN LOCAL meetings. For example, “Preventing possible violence based on anti-government extremism on the local level” and “Pulse Taking: What Are Local Effects of Recent Developments on P/CVE?”. In these meetings a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon was established. As such, local and regional coordinators and practitioners identified the breeding grounds, dynamics as well as forms of anti-government extremism.

They shared examples of anti-government groups and how anti-government extremism manifests itself on the local level. Following on the findings of these meetings and as recommended by local P/CVE coordinators, the RAN LOCAL WG will organise an online follow-up meeting to look into the options for local authorities to prevent and counter anti-government extremism and exchange experiences on how to restore trust in order to build resilience against anti-government sentiments.

Call for participants

For this meeting, we are looking for local and regional P/CVE coordinators of local or regional authorities. RAN LOCAL is the working group for the practitioners who coordinate efforts at the local level and who organise the information sharing between practitioners, contributing to the prevention and countering of violent extremism and other threats to democracy, shared values and rule of law.

If you are interested in participating in this meeting, could you please answer the questions in this form by 1 February at the latest?

We will invite participants and draft the programme based on the answers to these questions. Please keep in mind that we only have a limited number of places available for this meeting, so participation is not guaranteed. 

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact m [dot] shahhoudradaradvies [dot] nl (Malaz Shahhoud) or S [dot] Lenosradaradvies [dot] nl (Steven Lenos)