RJ4ALL Blog: Victims of Terrorism Day, March 11th, 2021

Written by:

      Tara Sheppard-Luangkhot, Peace and Conflict Studies PhD student and RDaVR Intern 

     Let’s take a moment to honour the victims of terrorism who have died, and who have been impacted by terrorism and violent extremism in Europe. At RJ4ALL we are inviting our online communities to light a candle on March 11, 2021. On our RJ4All social media (Twitter and Instagram @RJ4All, Facebook @Restorative Justice for All International Institute,  @Restorative Justice Research Network, and/or @Rdavr), there will be posts on March 11, 2021 for an online candlelight vigil. Please post a photo of your candle in our social media comment sections, and let us know how you try to honour victims of terrorism, and how you try to prevent violent extremism and terrorism in Europe and wherever you are in the world. 

     The Global Terrorism Index shows that far-right and religiously motivated terrorism continue to impact Europe and several parts of the world (Institute for Economics and Peace, 2020). RJ4ALL has multiple projects dedicated to preventing and countering terrorism and violent extremism in Europe. We are dedicated to healthy communities where people are not victimized by terrorism, violent radicalisation and violent extremism. In our efforts to respond to terrorism, RJ4All’s Internet Journal of Restorative Justice published a special issue on violent youth radicalisation, read more at  https://www.rj4allpublications.com/product/special-issue-editorial-violent-youth-radicalisation-perspectives-and-solutions/   RJ4All also offers several CPD accredited restorative justice e-courses to prevent violent radicalisation and support victims such as “Safeguarding and Empowering Victims of Crime” found at  https://rj4all.uk/online/courses/secv/ , or “Preventing Youth Radicalisation” found at https://www.rj4all.uk/online/courses/preventing-violent-youth-radicalisation/ and “Resolving Conflict and Addressing Group Violence” at https://rj4all.uk/online/courses/positive-futures/. 

     RJ4All Founder and Director, Dr. Theo Gavrielides also offers several free resources on his website at https://www.theogavrielides.com such as  Youth radicalisation, restorative justice and the Good Lives Model: Comparative Findings from seven countries and  Human Rights and Violent Extremism. Dr. Gavrielides has also written several blogs on the topic of violent radicalisation and violent extremism found at Blogs | London, UK. 

     RJ4All has multiple projects dedicated to preventing and countering violent radicalisation and violent extremism including “Violent Radicalisation, Human Rights and Restorative Justice” https://www.rj4all.info/RJ-Radicalisation . RJ4all has several projects https://www.rj4all.info/current-projects aimed at building healthy, strong and safe communities. Many of our projects are focussed on prevention of violent radicalisation such as YEIP at  https://www.facebook.com/YEIPproject/ and the projects listed below.

     Restorative Dialogue against Violent Radicalisation or RDaVR, is one of the RJ4All projects dedicated to preventing violent radicalisation, read more at https://www.facebook.com/restorativedialogue/.

 RDaVR is an Erasmus+ project that aims to research and develop restorative dialogue curriculum to train European criminal justice professionals to prevent violent radicalisation. Interdisciplinary efforts could create more security and safety from terrorism and violent extremism ( IEP, 2020). 

RDaVR will teach professionals to increase restorative justice and restorative dialogue skills that build resiliency, integration, self regulation and positive relationship among adults and youth at risk of violent radicalisation in the UK, Turkey, Italy, Romania, Spain and Ireland. Watch our RDaVR video at https://www.facebook.com/100007381333609/videos/2855409881381695/

 RADEX is another RJ4ALL, Erasmus+  project that aims to prevent and redirect youth from violent radicalisation and extremism in Europe. At RJ4ALL, we use concepts of  positive psychology and restorative justice in our positive prevention model underlying our theory of change. 

             At RJ4all, we honour all victims of terrorism by working to end violent radicalisation and violent extremism in European communities. We believe in restoring harm to communities impacted by terrorism, violent extremism amd violent radicalisation. By creating healthy communities where power is shared equitably and dialogue is restorative and peaceful, together we can build resilience against terrorism and violent extremism. 

Reference

Institute for Economics and Peace (2020). The Global Terrorism Index Report. Retrieved   from https://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GTI-2020-web-1.pdf