UNOCT completed its fifth and final regional workshop under the CT TECH initiative

The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) on 16-17 November 2023, completed its fifth and final regional workshop under the CT TECH initiative on “developing national counter-terrorism policy and operational responses to counter the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes while protecting human rights”, gathering 23 participants from Colombia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, in Port of Spain.

In his opening remarks, H.E. Mr. Peter Cavendish, Head of the European Union Delegation in Trinidad and Tobago stressed that although terrorists make use of new technologies for various ends, they “can also be used by law enforcement agencies to share intelligence on terrorists, detect acts of terrorism and bring terrorist perpetrators to justice and can provide opportunities and solutions for better protecting citizens from crime and acts of terrorism”.

Mr. Curt Simon, Deputy Commissioner of Police in Trinidad, and Tobago, emphasized that collaboration on new technologies in countering terrorism among international organizations and Trinidad and Tobago is of crucial importance. This, he said, will improve readiness of local police to respond to terrorist attacks and improve their capacity to take on new challenges in countering terrorism.

Mr. Steven Siqueira, Deputy Director of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) stressed that “to be effective over time, governments and security agencies around the world have learned that they need to ground their terrorism responses in international human rights law, or they risk increasing the number of young men and women who seek to join terrorist affiliated groups”.

In total, 135 participants, (33% of them female participants), from 29 partner states attended the five regional workshops in Nairobi, Tashkent, Sarajevo, Bangkok, and Port of Spain over the space of three months, as well as over 25 participants from embassies, private sector, and international organizations.

The workshops provided UNOCT with a comprehensive understanding of country-specific legislations with regards to new technologies in countering terrorism. Participants also shared good practices and elaborated on specific cases and success stories in countering the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes.

Participants welcomed the workshops and the opportunity to exchange lessons learned with regional counterparts, as well as requested capacity-building assistance in conducting national threat assessments and developing law enforcement capabilities frameworks for new technologies in countering terrorism.

After each workshop, the UNOCT/UNCCT Cyber Team held bilateral meetings with key stakeholders in selected partner states to discuss the way forward for tailored capacity-building assistance.

Based on the feedback provided by participants, UNOCT is planning to organize national workshops for five selected partner states during the upcoming CT TECH capacity-building phase.

The national workshops will focus on:

conducting national threat assessments,
development of national counter-terrorism policies on new technologies, and
assessing capabilities of law enforcement in this regard. The capacity-building will be based on the knowledge products launched under the CT TECH initiative earlier this year.

The CT TECH Initiative of UNOCT’s UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) was launched in 2022 with INTERPOL and the European Union and is implemented under the UNOCT/UNCCT Global CT Programme on Cybersecurity and New Technologies. The goal of the 2.5-year initiative is to strengthen the capacities of law enforcement and criminal justice authorities to counter the exploitation of new technologies for terrorist purposes and to leverage new technologies in the fight against terrorism.

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