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

CTED Executive Director participates in international conference on terrorism financing

AKHVEDELID — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 05:47:00 +0000

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USG Voronkov, ASG Coninsx, and representative of the Government of France.

On 25-26 April 2018, Assistant Secretary-General Michèle Coninsx, Executive Director of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), participated in an international conference on counter-financing of terrorism (CFT) organized by the Government of France. Entitled “No Money for Terror,” the conference aimed to take stock of current global CFT efforts; support effective implementation of the relevant international standards; and shed light on new terrorism-financing trends and methods.

Held in Paris and hosted by President Emmanuel Macron, the conference was attended by representatives of more than 80 Member States, including Ministers, as well as by heads of numerous international and regional organizations and agencies.

In her intervention, Ms. Coninsx briefed participants on CTED’s main findings with respect to Member States’ criminalization of terrorism financing, based on its 140 assessment visits. The Executive Director noted that a growing number of States were criminalizing terrorism financing as a standalone offence, but that the number of terrorism-financing cases being successfully prosecuted by Member States’ judicial systems remained limited. Attempts to prosecute terrorism financing continued to be undermined by, inter alia, the difficulty of proving knowledge or intent that the funds would be used for terrorism purposes.

The UN team included Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Voronkov, Head of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), representing Secretary-General António Guterres; experts of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; and an expert of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team of the 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee.

At the conclusion of the conference, a politically binding declaration was adopted. This declaration defines a number of priority action areas, including preventing the misuse of non-profit organizations (NPO) for terrorism-financing purposes, and promoting cooperation between Government and the private sector, involving social media, to prevent terrorists from raising and transferring funds online. The Declaration also calls on Governments to publicize asset-freezing designations made pursuant to Security Council resolution 1373 (2001).

On the margins of the conference, Ms. Coninsx met with Mr. Santiago Otamendi, President of the Financial Action Task Force, to discuss cooperation between CTED and FATF, with a special focus on Member States’ implementation of the international CFT standards.

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Packed agenda for last CTC plenary meeting of the year

BMUSONI — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 15:07:00 +0000

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14 December 2017 marked the 326th meeting of the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee, which was also the last meeting of H.E. Ambassador Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta, Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations, in his capacity as Chair of the Committee. The plenary had a packed agenda, covering numerous themes, including terrorism financing, and a future vision for the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED).

Mr. Santiago Otamendi, President of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), briefed the Committee on the work of FATF and cooperation between the United Nations and FATF (read CTED’s interview with President Otamendi here). Mr. Max Braun of the Luxembourg Financial Intelligence Unit and Ms. Dawn Peebles of SITE Intelligence Group also provided presentations on challenges faced in the regulation of transactions and prevention of the misuse of new social media technologies for purposes of the financing of terrorism. Mr. Braun focused on the issue of anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regulation of virtual currency exchange platforms, emphasizing the importance of tracing and monitoring transactions to find links to identify terrorists and terrorist networks. Ms. Peebles highlighted the misuse of social media, bitcoin, and familiar third-party transaction platforms to fund the purchase of weapons, equipment, supplies, and resources including human services.

In presenting proposed recommendations to the Committee regarding the role of financial institutions, CTED encouraged Member States to assess the terrorist risks of their financial sector, in line with FATF standards, and to apply anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations to those respective products and services of their financial sector. CTED experts also suggested that Members “develop or strengthen the partnership between public and private sector entities for the sharing of financial intelligence aimed at preventing terrorist attacks and identifying and dismantling terrorist networks.”

Executive Director of CTED, Assistant Secretary-General Ms. Michèle Coninsx, briefed the Committee on the future work of CTED as the Security Council was currently discussing the mandate renewal of CTED. Ms. Coninsx spoke about strengthening CTED’s assessments and methodologies, as assessments are the heart of CTED’s activity, and reinforced CTED’s aim of improving through “dynamism, flexibility, speed, creativity, and innovation.”

“It takes networks to beat criminal and terrorist networks,” she said. “Every effort should be made to enforce comprehensive approaches to counter terrorism.”

Documents

Remarks by the FATF President are available here.

Front Page Article:

Packed agenda for last CTC plenary meeting of the year

BMUSONI — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 15:07:00 +0000

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“It takes networks to beat criminal and terrorist networks,” she said. “Every effort should be made to enforce comprehensive approaches to counter terrorism.”

Documents

Remarks by the FATF President are available here.

Front Page Article: