Security Council - Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) - Conference

Joint high-level consultations of UN counter-terrorism bodies in Tajikistan

AKHVEDELID — Wed, 09 May 2018 05:39:00 +0000

tajikistan_1-1024x682.jpg

On 3-4 May 2018, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) participated in a high-level international conference on Countering terrorism and preventing violent extremism. Held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, the conference was co-organized by the Government of Tajikistan, several United Nations bodies, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the European Union (EU), with financial support from the State of Qatar.

CTED Executive Director Michèle Coninsx delivered a statement during the plenary session of the conference, highlighting CTED’s current efforts aimed at countering terrorism and the evolution of its mandate pursuant to the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, as well as its work in Central Asia. One of CTED’s Legal Officers also delivered a presentation on evolving new threats and terrorist tactics with a focus on returning and relocating foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs).

The main objectives of the Conference included creating a common understanding of current challenges and obstacles in the implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in the region and globally; exploring opportunities for strengthening partnerships and cooperation at national, regional, and international levels; sharing opportunities and challenges of Tajikistan’s National Counter-Terrorism Strategy implementation; identifying trends and challenges of radicalization, and the role of youth, ideology and information in preventing and countering violent extremism leading to terrorism; exchanging experiences in countering terrorism and preventing violent extremism with a focus on FTF threat prevention; stock-taking of domestic and regional mechanisms to counter terrorism and prevent violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism; and strengthening cooperation against cyber-terrorism and developing directives/guidelines for countering violent extremism in cyber space.

The conference was attended by delegations from 47 Member States, several United Nations delegations, and many regional organizations.

On the margins of the conference, Ms. Coninsx held several bilateral meetings, some of these jointly with UNOCT, the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy (UNRCCA), and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). These meetings included discussions with the President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan, high-level officials of Afghanistan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Qatar, the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan, the UN Resident Coordinator in Tajikistan, and heads of regional organizations.

Meeting with the Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Mr. Rashid Alimov (centre).

Meeting between the President of Tajikistan and the UN delegation.

In the last three years, CTED has conducted assessment visits, on the Counter-Terrorism Committee’s behalf, to all five countries of Central Asia, and is working closely with UNOCT in the framework of the third phase of the Joint Plan of Action (JPoA) for Central Asia, which was launched on 30 April 2018 in Ashgabat. The recommendations made during these country visits – including those requiring the provision of technical assistance – will be addressed at the Counter-Terrorism Committee’s open briefing in New York on 2 July 2018.

Front Page Article:

CTED Executive Director stresses continued need for global judicial and law enforcement cooperation against ISIL – signs Joint Action Plan with INTERPOL

AKHVEDELID — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 06:11:00 +0000

1-1024x772_1.jpg

CTED Executive Director Coninsx addressing the participants.

At a conference in Washington, DC, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Michèle Coninsx stressed the continued need for global cooperation by judicial and law enforcement bodies to counter the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as Da’esh).

“As many foreign terrorist fighters as there are, there are also numerous jurisdictions and legal frameworks that seek to address the issue,” she said.

The conference, on “Mobilizing Law Enforcement Efforts to Defeat ISIL,” was attended by 300 senior-level stakeholders and practitioners from a broad range of Member States and organizations. Aimed at justice and law enforcement officials engaged in counter-terrorism, the conference took place on 27 and 28 February 2018, and was organized by the U.S. Department of State, in cooperation with INTERPOL and the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ). A key objective of the event was to highlight the recently adopted Security Council resolution 2396 (2017), on returning and relocating foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs), as well as related multilateral efforts, including those of the Global Counterterrorism Forum.

Ms. Coninsx, Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), stressed the need to deal effectively with women and children who returned from conflict zones to their countries of origin or relocated to third countries. Returning or relocating women and children could be victims as well as perpetrators, she noted. There was also a need to address the whole lifecycle of FTFs, provide appropriate reintegration and rehabilitation programmes, and ensure that prisons did not become facilitators of radicalization.

The Executive Director also recalled the measures to be implemented by Member States to strengthen their capacity to detect and identify FTFs. Derived from Council resolution 2396 (2017), those measures included the introduction of so-called Advance Passenger Information (API) and Passenger Name Record (PNR) systems, responsible use of biometric data, protection of critical infrastructure and soft targets, preventing terrorist access to weapons and improvised explosive devices, and collecting evidence from the military.

Ms. Coninsx highlighted a number of related initiatives taken by CTED in cooperation with its key partners, and reaffirmed CTED’s commitment to cooperate and coordinate with the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and other UN entities, as well as with relevant international and regional organizations. She also praised the good cooperation between CTED and UNOCT, led by Under-Secretary-General Mr. Vladimir Ivanovich Voronkov.

On the margins of the conference, a Joint Action Plan was signed by the CTED Executive Director and Mr. Tim Morris, Executive Director of INTERPOL Police Services.

Executive Director of CTED Coninsx and Executive Director of INTERPOL Police Services Morris at the signing ceremony of the Joint Action Plan.

A follow-up to the existing Cooperation Arrangement, the Joint Action Plan sets out joint objectives and priorities for cooperation over the next two years. The Cooperation Arrangement and Action Plan are intended to leverage expertise, optimize resources, reduce duplication of effort, foster synergies, and maximize the value of deliverables to Member States.

Highlighting the already solid partnership between CTED and INTERPOL, the Executive Director stressed that CTED would make every effort to promote INTERPOL tools and the INTERPOL Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in its work.

Front Page Article:

CTED participates in RCTS SCO conference on counter-terrorism cooperation

BMUSONI — Sat, 04 Nov 2017 16:03:00 +0000

photo-sco.jpeg

The Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) participated in the annual conference of the Regional Counter-Terrorist Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (RCTS SCO), which focused on strengthening the mechanisms of international counter-terrorism cooperation.

Mr. Andrei Kovalenko, Head of the CTED Administration and Information Office, briefed participants on the recent activities of the Counter-Terrorism Committee and CTED, including within the framework of Security Council resolution 2322 (2016), on international law enforcement and judicial cooperation in countering terrorism.

Mr. Kovalenko noted that the resolution called for the broadest possible law-enforcement counter-terrorism cooperation, including through the use of digital evidence.

He also highlighted the need to strengthen intelligence cooperation, in particular by downgrading for official use intelligence threat data on foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) and individual terrorists and providing such information to frontline screeners.

The participants noted that terrorists were adapting their operational tactics in response to territorial losses sustained as a result of military pressure in Syria and Iraq.

A particularly worrying trend was the increasing geographical expansion and fragmentation of terrorist activity, including through the creation of “sleeper cells” by FTF returnees.

The massive influx of terrorists into Afghanistan was recognized as a significant threat to the States of the region.

The discussions also focused on sharing experience and good practices in such areas of the RCTS SCO activities as the exchange of intelligence information, joint counter-terrorism operations, measures to safeguard security at major events; maintaining the SCO secure database of terrorists and extremists, and sharing expertise in preventing use of the Internet for terrorist and violent extremist purposes.

The participants also noted the need to eliminate all sources of terrorism financing and reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing international cooperation in counter-terrorism, with the United Nations playing a central coordinating role.

During the conference, Mr. Kovalenko met with Mr. Yevgeniy Sysoyev, Director of the RCTS SCO, to discuss practical ways to strengthen collaboration.

Mr. Kovalenko expressed CTED’s support for the activities of RCTS SCO, which is an important platform for the facilitation of regional counter-terrorism cooperation.

The conference was attended by representatives of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member and observer States, as well as by a number of international and regional organizations, including the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG), the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), and the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre for Combating Illicit Trafficking of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and their Precursors (CARICC).

Front Page Article:

Regional conference in Vilnius stresses the crucial need for effective international judicial cooperation in terrorism-related cases

BMUSONI — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 19:11:00 +0000

1127.jpg

Building Effective Central Authorities for International Judicial Cooperation in Terrorism Cases, a regional conference run by the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), with substantive expert support of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and the Terrorism Prevention Branch of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC/TPB), was held in Vilnius (Lithuania) on 25-27 November 2014.

The transnational nature of terrorism, like all transnational organized crime, poses serious challenges for national justice systems. Creating effective central authorities to channel international cooperation in criminal matters is an essential element of the efforts made by States to bring terrorists to justice in an effective and timely manner. The ability to promptly request and provide extradition and mutual legal assistance (MLA) in criminal matters is particularly important in terrorism cases.

Practitioners from 12 countries (Eastern and Central Europe, Caucasus, and Turkey), experts from international and regional organizations, as well as guest experts from Belgium, Israel, and Switzerland, took part in the event. All countries covered by the conference have designated at least one central authority responsible for handling MLA and extradition requests. In most cases, the central authority is the Ministry of Justice, or the Office of the Prosecutor General. In some circumstances, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also involved in the proceedings. Most countries have more than one central authority competent depending on whether the request is made at the investigative / pre-trial stage or when the case is already before a court or a judgement has been rendered. Some but not all States have different central authorities for MLA and extradition requests, respectively. In addition, in some States, the procedures require an intermediary department, which receives and then forwards the requests to the executing agency.

Having discussed various challenges and good practices encountered in the context of regional and external cooperation in criminal matters, and in particular terrorism related cases, the representatives of national delegations suggested a number of recommendations and ways to improve their existing mechanisms. These included the creation and use of informal networks and bilateral discussions prior to sending formal requests; increasing the number of bilateral and multilateral agreements; adhering to flexible approaches; the use of follow-up procedures; making guidance and standard forms available to foreign counter-parts in several languages. INTERPOL presented information about new tools being developed to facilitate and speed up the transmission of MLA and extradition requests. Specifically with regards terrorism cases, participants discussed challenges related to MLA and extradition requests involving refugees and the cooperation in countering and preventing the foreign terrorist fighters phenomenon.

This regional conference was the third meeting to be organized within the framework of a global three-year joint project of the UNODC/TPB and CTED on building effective central authorities for international judicial cooperation in terrorism cases. Security Council resolution 1373 (2001) and subsequent resolutions, including resolution 2178 (2014), require that States afford one another the greatest measure of assistance in connection with criminal investigations or criminal proceedings relating to the perpetration, financing, or support of terrorist acts, including assistance in obtaining evidence in their possession necessary for the proceedings, and investigations or proceedings involving foreign terrorist fighters.

More information about the workshop is available at here

Front Page Article: