CTED conducts focused visit to New Zealand

AKHVEDELID — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 05:17:00 +0000

new_zealand_july_2018_edited-300x225.jpg

Photo: Visiting delegation at Massey University Oteha Rohe near Auckland, New Zealand, holding a community round-table discussion event on CVE with representatives from Government, civil society, community outreach programmes, religious leaders, and academia.

On 11-13 July 2018, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), acting on behalf of the Counter-Terrorism Committee, undertook a visit to New Zealand. Following the Committee’s initial assessment of July 2009, this was a focused visit concentrating on New Zealand’s implementation of Security Council resolutions 1373 (2001), 1624 (2005), 2178 (2014), 2396 (2017), and other relevant Council resolutions. In accordance with the practice followed for the Committee’s previous assessment visits, the human rights aspects of New Zealand’s counter-terrorism measures and the role of women in countering terrorism and violent extremism were also raised during the discussions.

Under the auspices of the New Zealand Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), representatives from a wide variety of national ministries and agencies, as well as of civil society and academia, took part in the three-day discussions, reflecting New Zealand’s cohesive methodology to counter-terrorism.

New Zealand has demonstrated a strong commitment to the enactment of a national framework on counter-terrorism and CVE. The diverse nature of New Zealand’s population, combined with its longstanding commitment to diversity, has major implications for its approach, including through its carefully constructed policies and measures in areas such as border management and community policing.

The CTED delegation, headed by Chief of Section Ms. Elizabeth Joyce, took note of New Zealand’s preventive and awareness-raising measures to prevent radicalization and counter violent extremism, and commended New Zealand for its bespoke, holistic approach to community outreach and collaboration.

The delegation noted the various measures taken by New Zealand to address terrorism threats related to the movement of terrorist actors and foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs), varying from enhanced border controls involving the use of cutting-edge technologies, through strengthening legal mechanisms for prosecution of terrorists and returning FTFs. The delegation also noted New Zealand’s preventive and awareness-raising measures to deal with radicalization and counter violent extremism, as well as a number of effective mechanisms aimed at ensuring inter-agency coordination and information-sharing, and welcomes New Zealand’s development of a draft national counter-terrorism strategy.

The delegation included CTED experts, as well as representatives of ICAO, INTERPOL, and UN Women.

Front Page Article:

CTED and UN Women partner in countering violent extremism in South and South-East Asia

BMUSONI — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 14:07:00 +0000

bangkok_workshops_25_29_september_2017.jpg

South and South-East Asia are among the world’s regions most severely affected by the threats of terrorism and violent extremism, with South Asia often cited as the second most impacted region in the world. The Security Council has stressed that these threats can best be countered by a comprehensive, whole-of-society approach that seeks to develop partnerships between Governments and other social actors. It is also essential to integrate a gender perspective, which means engaging with women and girls, who bring an expanded range of insights, expertise, and experience and may be differentially affected. In accordance with Security Council resolution 2354 (2017), effective action also entails countering and responding to terrorist narratives, both on-line and off-line, through creative messaging initiatives that include a prominent role for civil society and the private sector actors, especially young people.

To address these challenges, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and UN Women held two regional workshops in Bangkok, Thailand, during the week of 25 to 29 September 2017 on the topic of “Engaging communities in approaches to countering violent extremism (CVE) and incitement in Asia.” The workshops, organized with the support of the Government of Japan, brought together Government officials, civil society representatives, and academic experts, and provided an opportunity to share good practices and recommendations from South and South-East Asia, as well as learn from one another’s experiences. The week also included a special day-long session guided by Facebook, Google, and the Bangkok-based non-governmental organisation Love Frankie on effective approaches to countering terrorist incitement and recruitment on-line“In countering violent extremism, all-of-society approaches and public-private-partnerships have never been so important. We need to identify and mobilize more community stakeholders and break down firewalls between the public and private sectors,” said Sué Takasu, Senior Legal Officer with CTED.

CTED has long been active in both South Asia and South-East Asia, working closely with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), respectively. CTED’s work in the field of CVE is guided by Security Council resolutions 1624 (2005), which calls upon Member States to prohibit and counter incitement to commit terrorist acts, and resolution 2178 (2014), which urges States to consider an inclusive approach to countering the threat of violent extremism, particularly with respect to stemming the flow of foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs). Meanwhile, Security Council resolution 2242 (2015) consolidates the mandate of UN Women to work in the areas of counter-terrorism and CVE. It further requests the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) and CTED to integrate gender as a cross-cutting issue throughout the activities within their respective mandates, and it encourages the CTC and CTED to hold further consultations with women and women’s organizations to help inform their work.

Front Page Article:

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

CTED conducts focused visit to New Zealand

new_zealand_july_2018_edited-300x225.jpg

CTED and UN Women partner in countering violent extremism in South and South-East Asia

bangkok_workshops_25_29_september_2017.jpg