United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

The UNODC Regional Office in East Africa (ROEA)

Victims of Terrorism the focus of third UNODC and EAPCCO Regional Counter-Terrorism Centre Issue Paper  

Nairobi (Kenya), Wednesday, 18 August 2021 – The Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organization (EAPCCO) Regional Counter Terrorism Centre of Excellence (CTCoE) this week, with the assistance of UNODC, launched its third Issue Paper during the EAPCCO CTCoE and UNODC webinar series on “The Role of Law Enforcement in Preventing and Countering Terrorism in Eastern Africa”.

The ever-evolving threat of violent extremism and terrorism in Eastern Africa and the rest of the continent requires the best possible policy and operational decisions to prevent and counter these crimes. This requires a much better understanding of these threats.

The third issue paper, entitled “Law Enforcement Engagement with Victims of Terrorism", is authored by Rahma Dualeh and Florence Simbiri-Jaoko, with editing by Tina Mykkanen. The paper was discussed by authors and a panel of experts including: Francis Auma, Rapid Response Officer, Muslims for Human Rights Kenya (MUHURI); Max Boon, Co-founder, Alliance for a Peaceful Indonesia (AIDA); and Masoud Mwinyi, Senior Police Officer, National Police Service Kenya.

The launch of the Issue Paper this week coincides with the upcoming International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism on Saturday 21 August 2021. The UN General Assembly established the Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism in 2017 to honour the victims and survivors of terrorism.

The Issue Paper focuses on law enforcement engagement with victims of terrorism (VoT) in Kenya, and explores how Kenya’s national policy, legislative development and guiding principles should, and could, best support VoT and law enforcement interaction with VoT, The study examines the views of law enforcement, criminal justice and civil society practitioners alike, as well as relevant government actors and administrations. The paper highlights issues relating to unclear definitions of VoT, and the implications of this on the development of guidelines and practices guiding law enforcement interaction with VoT. The study presents several recommendations to develop and enhance law enforcement knowledge and skills to improve interaction with VoT, including:

1. Capacity building, with content specific and gender sensitive training for law enforcement;
2. Legislative support to the criminal justice system, including inter-agency support;
3. Joint law enforcement trainings and development of comprehensive SOPs C, with human rights and gender sensitive approaches reinforced throughout;
4. Public outreach and media campaigns to allow and improve safe and sustained platforms of communication between law enforcement and VoT;
5. Gender sensitive trauma healing and psychosocial support for VoT, law enforcement, and first responders;
6. Financial provisions to compensate VoT and establishment of a fund-raising body for the sustainability of support to VoT;
7. Further research to identify how Kenya can best adopt measures for VoT in legislation, law enforcement practices, and to identify how VoT needs may evolve. 

The EAPCCO CTCoE Issue Papers aim to provide policy options and recommendations for Chiefs of Police in Eastern Africa on various aspects of preventing and countering terrorism. In turn, the new initial four-part EAPCCO CTCoE and UNODC webinar series serves as a terrorism prevention knowledge platform for promoting research publications and for roundtable discussions between practitioners and regional experts in Eastern Africa and beyond. Held under the Chatham House Rules, the webinar series creates an opportunity for law enforcement practitioners in the Eastern Africa region, academia, civil society, donors, partners and media, discuss the development of appropriate policy and operational responses to the identified current and emerging threats posed by terrorism and violent extremism.

The final session of the initial webinar series, taking  place on 25 August, will see the launch of the Issue Paper on “Use of the Internet, other Digital Platforms and Digital Devices for Acts of Terrorism in Eastern Africa”.

The Issue Papers and webinar series forms part of the UNODC regional project on Supporting EAPCCO and its Regional Counter-Terrorism Centre of Excellence to Prevent and Counter Terrorism in Eastern Africa, funded by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany. 

Building on the previous project “Supporting and enhancing the EAPCCO Regional Counter-Terrorism Centre of Excellence for Eastern Africa”, the aim of this project is to support and strengthen the capacity of Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organization (EAPCCO) Member States, EAPCCO Secretariat and EAPCCO Regional Counter-Terrorism Centre of Excellence (CTCoE) to effectively prevent and counter terrorism and links to transnational organized in Eastern Africa, including through enhanced international cooperation in criminal matters, with a rule of law and human rights-based approach.

Register for the fourth session (25 August) at the link below:

Registration link: https://forms.gle/6Tcfnky62XM32kfu6

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Johan Kruger – Johan.Kruger@un.org

Head of Transnational Organized Crime, Illicit Trafficking and Terrorism Programmes,

UNODC Regional Office for Eastern Africa