UNGA Debate: Secretary General’s Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism

New Zealand is pleased to join today’s debate on the Secretary General’s Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism. Violent extremist groups, such as ISIL and Boko Haram, threaten international security, and for the increasing number of communities they touch, they also threaten all three pillars of this organisation: peace, development and human rights.  The Secretary General is right when he says that violent extremism is an affront to the purposes and principles of the Charter.

Given this threat, the Secretary General is also right to call on the General Assembly to speak in a united voice. We need to speak out not only “against” violent extremists, but “for” the values of this organisation. This Plan is an important first step in finding this stronger, more united voice.

We must not only speak against violent extremism, we need to act. Many of the recommendations in the report, such as greater community engagement, youth empowerment and measures to counter-marginalisation, reflect activities New Zealand already carries out, and actively promotes.

We welcome the flexible approach taken in this Plan. It encourages States to pick, from a range of recommendations, those actions which fit best in their specific context. The Plan rightly encompasses a broad range of activities, far beyond the usual ambit of traditional deradicalisation or counter extremism programmes. We hope this “upstream” approach, as the Secretary General has called it, will help us move away from an overly securitised approach to tackling the conditions which breed extremism. In New Zealand, the most effective programmes are not those that solely target “violent extremism”, but those with broader, more positive aims. Programmes focused on supporting inclusive communities and resilient individuals.

We also see some important emerging issues in the Plan, notably the challenges posed by returning foreign terrorist fighters, including the potential for their rehabilitation. This is an issue with which many states are grappling, New Zealand included. While the returnee issue is often seen through the lens of the threat posed to western countries, it is also of critical importance in other parts of the world, notably North Africa and the Middle East. For countries already in conflict, these returnees can pose an even greater threat. We believe the issue of returnees warrants further exploration, and we see potential for the UN to provide a forum for best practices.

Many States require targeted support and capacity building to effectively implement programmes to prevent violent extremism. The challenges are particularly great in countries that are already suffering from instability and conflict. We are pleased to see the Secretary General recommending that, in line with their mandates, UN field operations, including peacekeeping and special political missions, should integrate preventing violent extremism into their activities. This is an important issue which deserves the immediate attention of the Security Council.

There are many actors and initiatives already working, with countries, to prevent violent extremism. New Zealand is pleased to be a member of several of them such as the Global Counter Terrorism Forum. When it comes to effective funding platforms for prevention activities, we are also pleased to be on the board of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund.

In this crowded space, the UN continues to have an important role to play, but it needs to better leverage its comparative advantage. In this crowded space, the UN continues to have an important role to play, but it needs to better leverage its comparative advantage. When we speak of comparative advantage we mean: better using the UN's unparalleled convening power and presence on the ground in 180 countries, enhancing UN mechanisms for mobilising targeted capacity building assistance, and, where necessary, utilising the Security Council’s ability to set a common legal framework to support common action.

This Plan is another example of the UN utilising this comparative advantage. Now we need to ensure that the “one UN” ambition in this plan and the leadership shown by the Secretary General are realised. Just as member States need to focus on what actions we will take, the UN needs to translate its commitments into sustainable and coordinated action.