Counter-Terrorism Committee holds informal meeting on community engagement in Asia

AKHVEDELID — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 05:26:00 +0000

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The Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) has established close, longstanding relationships with the Member States of Asia, with a strong emphasis on the promotion of regional cooperation to counter terrorism and violent extremism. Recent work in South and South-East Asia has included a focus on the role of community engagement in these efforts, both within and outside the criminal justice system. CTED is also working closely with UN Women to identify and learn from the ways in which Governments of the region engage with women’s groups, youth, law enforcement, religious and community leaders, and educators, with the aim of identifying community engagement approaches as a way to counter incitement and violent extremism that is conducive to terrorism.

As part of these efforts, the Counter-Terrorism Committee on 6 June 2018 held an informal meeting in New York on community engagement to counter terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism in South and South-East Asia. Building on work undertaken in 2017 and 2018 by the Member States of the subregions, CTED, and by its implementing partners to promote regional cooperation in the area, the meeting offered participants to provide insights into regional experiences, lessons learned, and good practices, as well as to highlight engagement between practitioners and non-governmental partners.

The informal meeting illustrated the value of a whole-of-society approach to countering terrorism and violent extremism. One of the tools mentioned as a means to challenge gender stereotypes and terrorist narratives, as well as to stress the importance of education, was the use of comics and comedy, e.g. a cartoon like Burka Avenger. Bringing satirical comedy to a serious topic allows youth to be engaged in the political landscape through dialogue and by bringing a diversity of ideas. In terms of education, teaching youth to recognize and identify terrorist propaganda and rhetoric, as well as integrating technology, specifically social media, were also mentioned as particularly important.

The meeting was chaired by H.E. Gustavo Meza-Vuadra Velásquez, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Peru to the United Nations. Participants included Assistant Secretary-General Michèle Coninsx, Executive Director of CTED; Takeshi Akahori, Minister and Political Coordinator with the Permanent Mission of Japan to the UN; and Alison Davidian, Programme Management Specialist with UN Women’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. Presenters were H.E. Nabeel Munir, Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN; Achsanul Habib, Political Coordinator for Human Rights, Counter-Terrorism, and Decolonization with the Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the UN; Humera Khan, Co-founder and President of Muflehun; and Datu Mussolini Sinsuat Lidasan, Executive Director, Al Qalam Institute, Atteneo de Davao University.

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Second Asia counter-terrorism workshop focused on information and communications technologies held in Bangkok

AKHVEDELID — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 06:20:00 +0000

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On 24 and 25 January 2018, a workshop on information and communications technologies (ICT) and counter-terrorism (CT) was held in Bangkok. Co-hosted by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea and Thailand, this was the 2^nd Asia ICT and CT Dialogue involving the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) with a focus on exploring practical ways to strengthen the implementation of all relevant Security Council resolutions in this area.

In his address to the workshop, Mr. Andrei Kovalenko, Director in charge of the Administration and Information Office of CTED, outlined the role and activities of the Executive Directorate.

“Terrorists and terrorist groups exploit the Internet and social media not only to commit terrorist acts, but also to facilitate a wide range of terrorist activities. As part of the mandate given to us by the Security Council, CTED is involved in several initiatives that seek to address this issue.”

Mr. Kovalenko described two of these initiatives more in detail: In 2016, CTED together with Swiss non-governmental organization ICT4��AV had launched a joint project on private-sector engagement in responding to the use and abuse of ICT for terrorist purposes. The project, called Tech Against Terrorism (www.techagainstterrorism.org) and involving major Internet and social media platforms, had been recognized by several Security Council resolutions, including 2395 (2017) and 2396 (2017). Another project, undertaken with the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), focused on strengthening international cooperation among prosecutors in UN Member States engaged in counter-terrorism issues, specifically by enhancing prosecutors’ capacity to obtain digital evidence in timely manner.

In the Bangkok workshop, representatives from Member States, the private sector, civil society, and academia exchanged views on a range of challenges, including online radicalization and violent extremism, digital evidence and mutual legal assistance, the protection of critical infrastructure against terrorist attacks, and private-sector engagement and self-regulation.

Whereas the first workshop – held in Jeju, Republic of Korea, in May 2017 – had enabled participants to discuss current challenges, the second gathering deepened participants’ understanding of certain critical themes. Panellists noted that technology was developing at an overwhelming speed, stressing the need to provide immediate and urgent responses to terrorists’ exploitation of ICT. CTED emphasized the need for an all-of-society, comprehensive approach, as well as the need to address conditions conducive to the spread of violent extremism that could be conducive to terrorism, including by encouraging dialogue and collaboration with civil society and other relevant stakeholders.

It is anticipated that the third workshop (tentatively scheduled for the second half of 2018) will produce an agreement on general principles, as well as recommendations for future work in this area.

Additional photos from the workshop in Bangkok are available on our Flickr page, whereas more information about ICT and counter-terrorism can be found on the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee/CTED website.

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

Counter-Terrorism Committee holds informal meeting on community engagement in Asia

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Second Asia counter-terrorism workshop focused on information and communications technologies held in Bangkok

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