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Volume 7, Issue 5 (Suppl) J Community Med Health Educ
ISSN: 2161-0711 JCMHE, an open access journal Public Health Congress 2017
November 13-14, 2017
November 13-14, 2017 Osaka, Japan
3rd World Congress on
Public Health, Nutrition & Epidemiology
Mental health and religious extremism: International health system perspectives
Jean-Claude Javet
University Psychiatric Services, Switzerland
What can mental health as an integral part of the international health system contribute to prevent terrorist attacks that
are motivated by violent religious extremism? Mechanisms of the international health system provide various political
tools to address cross-border and domestic public health challenges. But are the mechanisms in place powerful enough
to address the current threat of fundamentalist terrorism? The mental health dimension of violent religious extremism is
not yet represented sufficiently on the global health agenda while the burden of mental health related problems is gaining
more and more attention, political weight and funding. Traditional if not strict secularism in policy making by the World
Health Organization (WHO) and many of its member states does not help efforts to increase collaboration and to promote
stronger leadership among the most powerful religious groups in addressing mental health as an important component of
counterterrorism. The willingness of WHO, other UN agencies and member states to include participation of religious groups
in public mental health based counterterrorism efforts is key. At the same time, mental health should be more prominent
among the proposed strategies of the UN Counterterrorism Committee (UNCTC). This would pave the way for mental health
approaches to become more influential in informing ongoing initiatives of the UNCTC, including public-private partnerships
with social media and internet companies.
Biography
Jean-Claude Javet has received a Doctorate in Neurology from Zurich University and MSc in Health System Management from Montreal University. He was
stationed in Kenya and Afghanistan prior to joining the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) where he served in different management positions. He has shown
an increasing interest in private-public partnerships and served as Executive Director of the International Association of Infant Food Manufacturers (IFM) in relations
with the World Health Organization, UN agencies and NGO’s.
Jean-Claude Javet, J Community Med Health Educ 2017, 7:5 (Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2161-0711-C1-030