On May 24 this year, the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (ISRS) held a meeting with the delegation of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund of Switzerland (GCERF) headed by Executive Director Khalid Kozer.

During the talks, the participants informed that GCERF implements projects on rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees in a number of countries around the world. In this regard, the experts expressed their interest in exchanging experience and best practices in this area.

In turn, Akramjon Nematov, First Deputy Director of ISRS, provided the guests with detailed information on the measures undertaken by Uzbekistan in the field of rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees.

The successful holding of the first meeting of Central Asia Regional Expert Council in Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Returnees, initiated by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev during the international conference in Tashkent on March 3-4, 2022, on May 14 this year in Tashkent was especially emphasized.

The event officially launched the activities of the Expert Council, which for the first time in the world practice institutionalized regional cooperation, designed to increase the effectiveness of joint efforts in the field of rehabilitation and reintegration. The Roadmap on cooperation between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the UNOCT for 2024-2025 was also adopted, allowing to bring bilateral practical interaction to a qualitatively new level.

At the same time, the parties substantively discussed issues of establishing cooperation between ISRS and GCERF. Mutual interest was expressed in organizing joint events on issues of countering extremism and terrorism, online radicalization, as well as the rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees.

GCERF is a global foundation operating since 2014 with headquarters in Geneva as an international organization specializing in the fight against terrorism and extremism. The Fund, implementing projects in 23 countries around the world, has invested more than $200 million until 2023 in increasing the resilience of local communities to the risks of radicalization, manages the Global Platform for Action, and has a cooperation agreement with the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism.