On 27 November, a meeting was held with more than 40 representatives from Central Asia, OSCE executive structures, UN entities and civil society organizations to discuss the Second Meeting of the Central Asia Regional Expert Council (REC) on the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Returnees. This initiative was launched in Tashkent in May 2024 by the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The REC’s goal is to bring together expertise from across Central Asia in prosecution, rehabilitation, and reintegration efforts, and provide recommendations through working groups focused on accountability, psychosocial support, countering terrorist narratives, and civil society engagement. At the meeting, participants discussed civil society-led rehabilitation programs and how to incorporate gender and age-sensitive considerations into their initiatives. They also examined legal frameworks that support reintegration processes and identified areas for capacity-building. The meeting was co-organized by various institutions, including the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the State Security Service of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), and the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA).
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