NordenBladet – Five Nordic capital cities have now signed the Nordic Capital Code of Action at the Nordic Safe City Summit 2019 in Stockholm. The aim is to fight terror and insecurity. The five cities are Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, Helsinki, and Reykjavik.
“What I hope to get out of the Nordic Capital Code of Action is concrete tools and knowledge from a robust network here in the Nordic Region,” says co-signer and mayor of Copenhagen Cecilia Lonning-Skovgaard at the Nordic Safe City Summit 2019 in Stockholm. There are several examples of the need to stand together and help one another in the Nordic Region. Only a few hours ago, a large-scale police operation in Denmark appears to have averted a potential terror attack. Unfortunately there are instances in Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Helsinki where this has not been the case, as well as in Norway, where a radical shot and killed young people on the island of Utyøa and in the al-Noor mosque in Bærum.
Co-operation on several fronts
The Nordic Capital Code aims to help prevent such tragic events from occurring in future. The Nordic Capital Code covers efforts aimed at:
* reducing threats, fear, and online hate
* empowering citizens in respect of fake news
* empowering young people to get involved
* building and expanding local safe city alliances
Overall, the efforts will help to improve the safety and security of Nordic cities. Mayor of Stockholm Anna König Jerlmyr is optimistic about the collaboration. She hopes that the next time she meets her mayoral counterparts in the context of Nordic Safe City, she will see more Nordic exit programmes and a general increase in co-operation to combat polarisation.
Nordic Safe City – founded by the Nordic Council of Ministers
It’s not just capital cities that are working together to create safe cities. In 2016, the Nordic Council of Ministers initiated Nordic Safe City, which Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers Paula Lehtomäki describes as follows:
“Nordic Safe City is a unique forum to support and secure Nordic cities and residents. It’s a forum that the Nordic Council of Ministers is proud to have initiated and founded.” More than 1,000 experts from more than 30 cities across the Nordic Region have worked together and shared their knowledge and best practice within the forum. They will continue to do so in the future, as from 2020 Nordic Safe City will stand on its own two feet as an independent NGO.
Source: Norden.org