75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly
UN Security Council Arria meeting on preventing terrorism and violent extremism through tackling gender stereotypes, masculinities, and structural gender inequality
Statement by DPR Andre Lipand
July 28, New York
Estonia is honoured to co-sponsor today’s Arria on the important topic of preventing terrorism and violent extremism alongside Mexico, the US, the UK and Norway. I would like to thank the briefers for their insightful briefings.
The Security Council has been committed to the Women, Peace and Security agenda for over two decades. A year after the adoption of the seminal resolution 1325, the Council also adopted the comprehensive resolution on countering terrorism. It is now good to see the Council’s own gender-sensitive approach to devote attention to the notion of masculinity.
If we are to effectively prevent terrorism, we need more understanding of how terrorism is enabled and perpetuated.
As we have heard today, certain masculinities play a role in radicalization to violence and are related to the uninhibited spread of terrorist ideology among people vulnerable to respective narratives. Narratives that shape perceptions of the world, guide the processes of identity formation and play an important part in establishing group identity. It is important to become aware of the potentially harmful effects of these identity building blocks.
For preventing terrorism and violent extremism more widely, we need to become aware of the ways in which these masculinities come to play – as employed by terrorists, including in the recruitment efforts, and also in the counter-terrorism framework, on local and international levels.
Radicalized identities are difficult to dismantle. Recourse could be found in rendering communities more resilient, based on fully respecting gender equality. I want to underline the obvious – that any strategies for greater diversity, meaningful participation and action, need to be human rights-compliant.
It is also essential we engage meaningfully with civil society groups and the private sector. The voice of youth, women, religious and community leaders should be heard, and we are very glad that this is the case today.
Finally, the United Nations has a central role in leading the global Counter Terrorism effort, from setting standards to delivering technical assistance. As an advocate for the One-UN approach in countering terrorism, it is clear that going forward, the approaches of the United Nations need to fully take into account issues pertaining to gender equality, gender stereotypes and masculinities that hamper Counter Terrorism efforts on the ground.
Thank you.
