PARTICIPATION PROJECT: France´s primary CVE intervention

Primary intervention focuses on early prevention of radicalisation, awareness-raising and resilience-building (RAN, 2018). With the introduction of the new PNPR, the French government 64 decided to strengthen primary mechanisms to raise awareness about and reinforce the knowledge of violent radicalisation.

In order to reach this goal, a wide range of social actors has been addressed, consisting of 1) public officials, 2) actors involved in education, 3) internet stakeholders, 4) civil society organizations, 5) enterprises, 6) citizens. The first category of primary intervention are public officials. Raising the awareness regarding violent radicalisation within the public sector is a priority to build capacity of detection and treatment of radicalised or radicalising individuals at local level. For this reason, training sessions that analyses various essential topics for the understanding of violent extremism (e.g. multi-level drivers of violent radicalisation, different types of violent extremism in France etc.) are occasionally organized (Former et Sensibiliser, CIPDR).

These training sessions are jointly offered by the SGCIPDR in collaboration with experts from the institutional and academic sectors and are addressed to different actors of public services – such as prefectures, national police, gendarmerie, education, justice – as well as NGOs and associations operating at local level4 . Since 2014, more than 30.000 public officials have received appropriate training on the issue of radicalization (Former et Sensibiliser, CIPDR). Moreover, consistently with the aim of spreading awareness as much as possible across society, the SG-CIPDR has started organizing specific training sessions also for local elected representatives since 2019 in collaboration with the National Centre for Territorial Public Services.

The second category addressed by primary intervention mechanisms are the actors involved in education of children and young people. The first aim of this set of policies, which is developed by the SG-CPDR in coordination with the French Ministry of Education, is to raise awareness among educators in order to build resilience among children and youngsters. These measures of primary prevention are developed according to a top-down approach and concerns all the actors involved in education. Since 2017, for instance, the institutional network CANOPÉ has developed new resources for teachers to better understand the main drivers of radicalisation among the youngsters and to detect first signs of radicalization (Prévenir la Radicalisation, Reseau Canopé). At the same time, a set of new educational programs to increase the resilience of students against radicalisation and conspiracy theories has been implemented since the academic year 2018-2019, such as moral and civil education, media literacy, critical thinking to fight extremist propaganda and history of ideas and religions (Politique de Prévention de la radicalisation violente en milieu scolaire, EDUSCOL).

The PNPR envisages awareness-raising campaigns also for universities and research 4 For instance, in March 2021 a two-days training session investigating key concepts of Islam, the geopolitics of transnational jihadism and the drivers of Islamist violent radicalisation took place (cipdr.gouv.fr) 65 institutes. However, primary intervention at educational level involves also other types of measures. For instance, the French government provided guides and tools for preventing violent radicalisation also to sport federations, private owners of sport facilities and sport directors at municipal level (PNPR). Moreover, a new set of mechanisms has been elaborated to foster social cohesion and integration, which are fundamental to prevent violent radicalisation from spreading across society. For instance, in 2017, the project of Cités Educatives was launched to support the collaboration at local level of various actors contributing to the education of children and young people (Les Cités Educatives). Hence, families, sport trainers, teachers, associations, local enterprises or simple residents are given a new space to take part in social bonding activities, collaborate to the education of the youth and, consequently, prevent the potential emergence of social vulnerabilities that might lead to violent radicalisation.

The third category addressed by primary intervention mechanisms are internet stakeholders. As asserted in the PNPR (p.10), the French government contributes to prevent the dissemination of terrorist propaganda on the internet through different means. Firstly, the fight to online violent extremist propaganda is advanced with the mission of the French Digital Ambassador, responsible for the dialogue with major internet platforms to develop automatic instruments to remove terrorist contents from the internet. For this purpose, new financial contributions have been allocated for the development of applied research.

Secondly, in the framework of the European Intern Forum, France is cooperating with internet firms and civil society organisations involved in online counterextremism discourse. The collective Katiba des Narvalos, for instance, is reputed to have contributed to delete more than 100.000 pro-IS Twitter accounts in the French speaking world (Merret, 2020) and other types of NGOs are increasingly involved in this type of activities.

The fourth addressed category are civil society organisations. The ratio behind the PNPR is not only to raise awareness regarding violent radicalisation, but also strengthen social cohesion and integration. For this purpose, the SG-CIPDR closely cooperates with the network of associations and NGOS spread across the country. Different types of organisations are involved (Les Partenaires de Terrain du CIPDR, CIPDR). 105 Houses for Adolescents (Maisons des Adolescents – MDA) welcome young people from 11 to 25 years old and their families to provide psychological, social, educational and judicial support in troubled family situations. The Schools for Parents and Educators (écoles des parents et des éducators – FNEPE) support parents throughout the educational path of their children and provide different activities to raise awareness regarding radicalisation. Specialised helpline such as the Centre for the Support of Young People (Points d’Accueil écoute 66 Jeunes) and the National Union of Family Associations (Union Nationale des Associations Familiales – UNAF) are mobilised to support families and young people with various difficulties. The fifth category that primary intervention addresses are enterprises (PNPR, p.14).

The involvement of the entrepreneurial sector in PNPR is based on the observation that first signs of radicalisation may stem from professional problems or dire working situations. For this reason, the new plan to prevent radicalisation aims at increasing the awareness of companies, professional federations, trade unions and enterprises through the creation of a specific training system. Finally, the last category addressed by primary intervention mechanisms is the entire French community. In order to promote and disseminate values such as tolerance, non-discrimination, laicity and dialogue, the SG-CIPDR has developed online and offline tools and activities to increase the resilience of French citizens against violent radicalization (Former et Sensibiliser, CIPDR).