Addressing terrorism and parliaments
The United Nations Office of Counter Terrorism, Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and other United Nations entities, such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, work jointly to support parliamentary actions and legislative work necessary to implement existing relevant United Nations resolutions and strategies regarding terrorism and violent extremism as and when conducive to terrorism. The programme “The Role of Parliaments in Addressing Terrorism and Violent Extremism Leading to Terrorism” supports Parliaments in implementing international counter-terrorism instruments and obligations, addressing conditions conducive to terrorism and filling the gaps in the implementation of international legal and other instruments against terrorism.
The Programme seeks to enhance parliamentary contribution to the development of:
- Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) and counter-terrorism policies, strategies and action plans
- Support parliaments in promoting a balanced implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy
- Parliamentary cooperation with the civil society
- Empowering women and youth and promoting their role in counter-terrorism and PCVE.
The Programme has a strong focus on the protection of rights and needs of victims of terrorism and mainstreaming their voices in counter-terrorism narratives and debates. It also promotes international cooperation among relevant parliamentary committees, and facilitates the exchange of good practices, lessons learned and relevant experiences.
Concrete operational outcomes include:
- Providing legislative and capacity building assistance at the national and regional levels
- Organizing two UN-IPU Global Parliamentary Summits
- Establishing a Global Parliamentary Network of national parliamentary security committees
- Elaborating necessary tools, guidelines, model laws and good practices
- Developing a web site and mobile application for parliamentarians
- Building five databases with national legislation, case law, treaties, UN Security Council resolutions and other relevant materials (at )
- Producing a world parliamentary report on implementing the international obligations and other measures related to counter-terrorism