CO-CURRICULAR  ACTIVITY

United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT): 

Parliamentary Engagement in Preventing and Countering Terrorism

In association with the Shura Council of the State of Qatar

I had the opportunity to attend the 2024 edition of the Doha Youth Parliamentary Forum, organized by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism as part of their Parliamentary Engagement in Preventing and Countering Terrorism initiative, in association with the Shura Council of the State of Qatar, between November 9 and 28, 2024. 

Consisting of thematically grouped presentations by multiple speakers, the forum opened with a discussion on youth engagement and empowerment as an effort towards integrating youth into Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) policy design, highlighting the UNOCT YEEP model as a successful example of youth-led participatory action research in the field. The next discussion delved into the intricacies of the integration of human rights and promotion of youth perspectives in parliamentary responses to terrorism and violent extremism, with respecting sovereignty and security of all parties standing as top priorities of the process. 

Arguably one of the most novel discussions in the forum, the next session discussed violent extremist exploitation of online video games and similar spaces, noting the rise in recruitment and radicalization especially of young men as a result, and focused on internationally cooperative legislative and political action to prevent this issue from crystallizing into an intractable nature. The presentation on the role of women and the family in CT/PCVE was a particularly critical one in my opinion, followed by the discussion on the legal and technical challenges surrounding counterterrorism and combating organized crime, as well as the efforts of civil societies towards the same. 

Having learned in my time at Georgetown to appreciate diversity in all forms, especially in thought, it was fascinating to watch the panelists present and discuss a variety of issues at considerable depth. In several cases, these panelists were government officials or social activists who spoke from personal experience and greatly enriched their presentations with real-life examples of these issues intersecting with their own work, alongside the solutions they implemented towards resolving said issues in their scope of work.  

Another reason why I resonated deeply with this co-curricular experience was because of its connections to the courses I had taken towards the certificate. For instance, some of the panels tied directly into themes I had gleaned from The Weaponization of Hate course, including the need to treat radicalization and terrorism as serious threats to stability worldwide. The Digital Society was another course that came to mind during the presentations on the roles of digital technology and social media, since the course aimed to highlight the intersections of the digital and the societal, especially when it comes to political action.   

Attending the forum in full also provided me with multiple perspectives that I could engage in the research capstone, particularly that of the youth and of women, which is especially important in the case of exploring socio-political spaces that tend to be dominated by men particularly in the Global South. More importantly, it impressed upon me the gravity of the issue, especially with its intersectional and international nature demanding focused and cooperative action in an increasingly polarized and modernizing world.