Youth and the prevention of violent extremism: perspectives from Western European youth

The “Youth and the Prevention of Violent Extremism” workshop on Western European Perspectives was organized by the Permanent Mission of Austria to the OSCE, and held as part of the “OSCE United in Countering Violent Extremism (#UnitedCVE)” campaign on 4 October 2016 in Vienna. The participants developed recommendations for governments on prevention of violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism (VERLT), which were presented by one of at the 2016 OSCE Mediterranean Conference on 5 October 2016.

In 2017 Austria as the OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office convenes with the support of the OSCE executive structures a series of sub-regional workshops on youth and preventing violent extremism for the  Black Sea region, the Western Balkans and Central Asia. These workshops provide a platform for youth who are involved in preventing VERLT or active in relevant areas, such as intolerance, xenophobia, hate speech, hate crimes, marginalization, disenfranchisement, gangs, or hooliganism, to brainstorm and share their experience and perceptions of the threat of VERLT. They got an opportunity to discuss and review the work done, as well as formulate recommendations for policy-makers which will be shared with OSCE participating States and Partners for Co-operation at a 2017 OSCE-wide counter-terrorism conference to be held in Vienna on 23-24 May 2017.