27 February 2017 BRUSSELS —The Philippines, together with the European Union and Australia, jointly organized in Brussels the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Workshop on Mainstreaming the Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) in the ARF region on February 15 to 16.

The prevention of violent extremism is one of the five priorities of the ARF Work Plan for Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime. It shows a greater consciousness among the 27 ARF members of the need to enhance cooperation and develop a coordinated strategy in this field.

The Philippine government considers countering violent extremism a priority.  The government has developed a national action plan to curb the effects of radicalization. In addition, the government leads a whole society approach and develops local initiatives to prevent radicalization and to promote peace, as well as de-radicalization programs in prisons.

The workshop was divided in five different sessions where the participants exchanged views on existing community-driven PVE initiatives, with a focus on youth; on the issue of de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration of violent extremists in prison settings; on the implementation of regional and international PVE policy framework; the development of successful counter-narratives to combat terrorist propaganda; and on the security perspective and the challenge of combining ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ approaches.

More than 100 representatives and experts from the ASEAN Secretariat, Malaysia, Laos, South Korea, New Zealand, Viet Nam, India, Australia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Indonesia, Singapore, Canada, China, the EU, Indonesia, Belgium, Japan, Cambodia, Myanmar, the United States, Brunei, Thailand and Russia attended the workshop. END