Security Council resolution 2322, adopted at the end of 2016, seeks to enhance international judicial and law enforcement cooperation in order to strengthen the international response to terrorism. The resolution underlines the importance of strengthening international cooperation, including by investigators, prosecutors, and judges, in order to prevent, investigate, and prosecute terrorist acts; it sets forth new requirements for promoting cooperation at the global, regional, subregional, and cross-regional levels.
This resolution accords a central role to the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) and its Executive Directorate (CTED) in identifying gaps and trends in international cooperation among Member States, facilitating capacity-building, and working with key partners to promote its implementation. The Council has also requested CTED to prepare a report on the current state of international law enforcement and judicial cooperation in counter-terrorism matters, identify major gaps, and provide the Committee with recommendations on how to address these.
With a view to discussing these challenges, identifying good practices and areas in which further efforts are required, the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee on 21 June 2017 organized a special meeting. Following a summary of technical consultations organized by CTED over one and a half days preceding the special meeting, discussions focused on three main areas: International law enforcement cooperation, which featured speakers from the Council of Europe, INTERPOL, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR); International judicial cooperation, whose panel members represented EUROJUST, the League of Arab States, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); and Cross-regional cooperation, which featured representatives of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the International Association of Prosecutors, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), and the World Customs Organization.
Acknowledging the approximately 50 international and regional organizations attending the special meeting, Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee H.E. Amr AbdellatifAboulatta, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations, stressed that while Member States bear the main responsibility for strengthening international cooperation in order to prevent, investigate, and prosecute terrorist acts, “our success also requires the knowledge, expertise and active support of relevant international and regional organizations, the private sector, and civil society.”
Mr. Jean-Paul Laborde, Assistant Secretary-General and CTED Executive Director, in his closing remarks welcomed the progress made in international cooperation against terrorism, but called upon all Member States and international and regional organizations to make full use of all instruments available.
Summaries
Summary of technical consultations
Meeting recordings
A webcast recording of the entire open briefing can be found
Photos
A Flickr album of photos from the meetings is available
Presentations
- Mr. Jean-Philippe Morange, Senior Legal Officer, CTED
- Mr. Callixtus Joseph, Regional Crime and Security Strategy Coordinator, CARICOM IMPACS
- Mr. Mauro Miedico, Chief a.i. Terrorism Prevention Branch, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
- Ms. Allison Curtis, Programme Manager, International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ)
- Mr. Carlo Chiaromonte, Head of Criminal Law and Counter-Terrorism Divisions, Council of Europe (technical consultation session)
- Ms. Tanya Mehra, Senior Project Leader, International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT)
- Ms. Sue Takasu, Senior Legal Officer, CTED
- Mr. Eelco Kessels, Executive Director, Global Center on Cooperative Security
- Mr. Abdou Hamani, General Director of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Niger Focal Point, Regional Judicial Platform of the Sahel Countries
- Mr. Boubacar Djibo, Director, Air Transport Bureau, ICAO
- Mr. Mubarak Saeed Alkhyeli, GCCPOL
- Ms. Rachel Mourad, Consultant, United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre/Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, CTITF
- Mr. Constantin Virgil IVAN-CUCU, Capacity Building Expert, EuroMed Justice Programme
- Ms. Rasa Ostrauskaite, Co-ordinator of Activities to Address Transnational Threats, Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
- Ms. Cécile Plunet, AIRCOP Global Coordinator (UNODC)
- Mr. Michel Quille, Head of Project, EuroMed Police
- Ms. Anne-Maria Seesmaa, Associate Legal Officer, CTED
- Mr. Carlo Chiaromonte, Head of Criminal Law and Counter-Terrorism Divisions, Council of Europe (special meeting session)
- Ms. Michèle Coninsx, President, EUROJUST
- Karl Linderborg, Seconded National Expert – Expert National Détaché, European Commission (With two links at the end of the presentation which will lead to two key documents (non-paper and the more detailed technical document) as well as to other useful information that will explain the process in more detail. Further questions could be addressed to the European Commission functional mail which is also mentioned in the last page of the presentation.)