08 June 2023
Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism (REMVE*) operations, ideologies, and actors are becoming more transnational, connecting easily across borders and online, through social media platforms, where violent ideologies and terrorist acts are shared. This is making it easier for like-minded individuals or groups to fund cross-border activities, and support traveling abroad for concerts, conferences, rallies, trainings, and other events where these ideologies take center-stage.
By empowering practitioners to use the recommendations available in the REMVE Toolkit, stakeholders’ abilities at the working level are strengthened. As part of the Awareness Raising and Operationalizing the GCTF REMVE Toolkit Initiative, led by The United States and Norway, virtual tabletop exercises were held to practice the use of the GCTF REMVE Toolkit. During the workshop, real-life situations were simulated to encourage participants to use the Toolkit and apply the recommendations to local contexts. The exercise sparked fruitful discussions that further added value for the participants.
The Toolkit Initiative seeks to strengthen stakeholders’ abilities to develop and implement counter-REMVE strategies, policies, and programs that reflect relevant GCTF recommendations and respect domestic and international laws. The GCTF REMVE Toolkit is based on existing GCTF Framework Documents and the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law’s (IIJ) Criminal Justice Practitioner’s Guide for Addressing REMVE.
GCTF Resources:
* Regarding terminology, GCTF Members and experts use a number of different expressions to describe REMVE and interrelated threats. These include “racially or ethnically motivated terrorism,” “ideologically motivated violent extremism,” “right-wing terrorism,” “far-right terrorism,” “extreme-right terrorism,” “violent right-wing extremism,” and “white supremacist terrorism,” “terrorism on the basis of xenophobia,” and “terrorism in the name of religion or belief,” among others. At the international level, “violent incidents often underpinned by racial, ethnic, political, and ideological motivations” have been expressly outlined as aspects of “terrorist attacks on the basis of xenophobia, racism and other forms of intolerance, or in the name of religion or belief”(XRIRB). Despite differences in terminology, each of these expressions describes attacks perpetrated by individuals or groups in the name of defending against perceived threats to their racial or ethnic identity or ensuring the superiority/supremacy thereof.