Bali, Indonesia, June 9: When violent extremist or terrorist attacks occur, the focus is often on the perpetrators and less on the victims of such attacks whose voices are often side-lined. Tackling this paradox, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), with the support of the U.S. government through the ASEAN-USAID PROSPECT project, gathered 73 key stakeholders—including civil society leaders, ASEAN officials, and victims themselves—to share experiences on human rights-based approaches to strengthen protection and prevention for those impacted by radicalization and violent extremism in ASEAN.
Participants had the opportunity to learn from and exchange views across five main sessions: 1) Recognizing the Rights of Victims of Terrorism and Supporting Victims of Terrorism – Sharing Experiences and Practices among officials and civil society, 2) Sharing Experiences in Developing and Implementing a Victim-Centric Strategic Approach among Practitioners, 3) Ensuring Access to Justice for Victims of Terrorism –Sharing Experiences among ASEAN Member States, 4) The Role of Victims’ Associations and the Prevention of Radicalization in the Social-Media and the Internet, and 5) Community Policing Approaches to Prevent Radicalization and Violent Extremism.
The U.S. government remains a durable partner of ASEAN. USAID prioritizes working with ASEAN to develop more inclusive, rights-based, and victim-oriented measures that uphold the human rights of survivors to better address physical, psychological, social, and economic consequences stemming from violent extremism and prevent its future occurrence.
***
