#UnitedAgainstTerror: Special meeting of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee on international judicial and law enforcement cooperation

BMUSONI — Wed, 21 Jun 2017 14:07:00 +0000

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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 here.

Photos

A Flickr album of photos from the meetings is available here.

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.)

Front Page Article:

CTED hosts 12th Regional counter-terrorism workshop for judges, prosecutors, and police in South Asia

BMUSONI — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 09:18:00 +0000

The 12^th Regional workshop for judges, prosecutors, and police in South Asia on effectively countering terrorism took place in Colombo from 5 to 7 June 2017. Over the past eight years, these regional workshops have involved over 300 senior judges, prosecutors, and police officials representing all eight member States of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Organized by the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), in cooperation with the Government of Sri Lanka and the Global Center on Cooperative Security, the workshop allows participants to identify a number of counter-terrorism-related gaps and potential solutions.

CTED and its partners continue to take their findings into account in facilitating the delivery of technical assistance aimed at strengthening Member States’ capacities in these areas.

Some of the participants in the workshop.

Representatives of numerous regional and international organizations have been engaged in the project, which provides law enforcement officials from across the region the opportunity to interact and share experiences with their counterparts on sensitive counter-terrorism-related issues.

The project has also fostered the creation of a regional online network of expert practitioners who are able to share information and good practices in a number of sensitive areas, including domestic and international cooperation in criminal matters, interview and interrogation, use of sensitive evidence, advanced investigative techniques, and gender.

Project donors include Australia, Canada, Denmark, India, Sweden, and the United States of America.

Front Page Article:

Security Council - Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) - law enforcement

#UnitedAgainstTerror: Special meeting of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee on international judicial and law enforcement cooperation

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CTED hosts 12th Regional counter-terrorism workshop for judges, prosecutors, and police in South Asia