The meeting was organised by the Government of Tajikistan in co-operation with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, the “Civil Initiative on Internet Policy”, and the Action against Terrorism Unit of the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department.
A two-day expert meeting on how to address the digital dimensions of violent extremism in Central Asia opened on 12 December 2019 in Dushanbe for some 70 experts from all the Central Asian states and Afghanistan. The participants include representatives of law enforcement agencies, relevant state institutions, the ICT industry, civil society, youth organizations, academia, and the media.
The experts meeting will include presentations on best practices from Central Asian experts and international experts from Canada, Israel, Russia, the United States and OSCE. They will highlight relevant best practices on effectively addressing the threats posed by the exploitation of the internet by terrorists while respecting privacy and freedoms of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and religion or belief, as well as the need to preserve global connectivity and the free and secure flow of information.
An outcome document summarizing the key findings of the panel discussions and how to strengthen sustainable and realistic co-operation and co-ordination in the Central Asian region on issues related to preventing and combating violent extremism online will be produced.
This is the third expert meeting organized on the topic of addressing the digital dimensions of violent extremism in Central Asia and is a follow-up to the previous meetings held in 2017 and 2018 in Kyrgyzstan.