News

UNESCO and the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) will launch a two-year project on “Prevention of Violent Extremism through Youth Empowerment in Jordan, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia” with an event at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, on 24 April (Miro Space, 10.30 a.m. to 1 p.m).

During the launch event UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, Vladimir Voronkov will have a public conversation on the UN and UNESCO’s response to violent extremism with two young actors of change from the Arab Region, Souli Aslam (Tunisia) and Hajer Sharief (Libya).

The launch will also feature the participation of six young people from the region who have been affected by violent extremism and who will speak of their experience.

The new project will support youth driven initiatives on the ground in education, sciences, culture, and the media to prevent violent extremism. Youth organizations, education stakeholders and media professionals will be mobilized around programmes that will include cross-cultural youth dialogues, training in conflict-sensitive reporting, and critical thinking labs.

As of 2016, violence or armed conflict in some way affected at least one in four youth (15 to 29 year-olds). The world’s 1.2 billion young people regularly demonstrate the ability to capitalize on their resilience constructively against all odds. Yet, some prove vulnerable to the appeal of the all-embracing solutions proposed by violent extremist groups. The project, co-funded by Canada, is a collective move towards engaging youth in the prevention of violent extremism, an issue that disproportionately affects young people throughout the region.

The launch event will be accessible on Facebook Live.

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The young leaders will be available for interviews after 1 p.m.

#YouthPVE

Media contact for accreditation: Djibril Kébé, UNESCO Media Section, d.kebe@unesco.org, +33(0)145681741

More on the Project

About the United Nations Counter-terrorism Centre (UNCCT)

URL:

https://en.unesco.org/news/launch-project-tackle-violent-extremism-jordan-libya-morocco-and-tunisia