Statement on At The 11th Meeting Of The Heads Of Special Services, Security Agencies And Law-Enforcement Organization, Moscow, Russian Federation

Oct 04,2012

Mr. Chairman, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen

I would like to begin by expressing my sincere thanks and gratitude to our hosts, the Federal Security Service (FSB), for organizing this Eleventh Meeting of the Heads of Special Services, Security Agencies and Law-Enforcement Organizations.

As I speak, I also wish to recall the comprehensive deliberations that we have had in the magnificent city of Saint Petersburg last year.

Mr. Chairman,

I avail this opportunity to present before you some thoughts in my personal capacity as Chair of the Counter Terrorism Committee.

To say that terrorism today constitutes the most serious challenge to international peace and security would be both a self-evident truism and an understatement.

No cause or grievance can justify terrorism.

Effectively combating the global scourge of terrorism requires necessary political will of member states and greater international and regional cooperation.

We need to constantly expand the scope of the legal instruments taking into account the changing nature of the threat and expand enforcement efforts to destroy safe havens for terrorists, their financial flows and their support networks. We also need to evolve a powerful counter-narrative to combat incitement and radicalization.

It goes without saying and in fact it is absolutely essential that measures taken by States to combat terrorism comply with all their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law.

As Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee, it has been my endeavour to ensure the effective implementation of Security Council Resolutions 1373 (2001), 1624 (2005) and 1963 (2010). All these Security Council resolutions do not only advance counter-terrorism measures adopted by the Council but also advance the implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by the General Assembly. This in turn enhances cooperation among all nations to combat the scourge of terrorism.

Mr. Chairman,

The UN’s convening power is unparalleled and it has played a seminal role in combating terrorism and capacity building of member States. Our efforts at the UN are now increasingly focussed towards enhancing greater cooperation, coherence and coordination of counter-terrorism efforts amongst various UN entities including the CTED, UNODC and the CTITF Office.

The success in the fight against terrorism goes hand-in-hand with progress in strengthening counter-terrorism cooperation and exchange of information at the international, regional and sub-regional level. The CTC enjoys a close and symbiotic relationship with international, regional and sub-regional organizations and I would like to applaud the efforts of CTED in this regard. I am happy with the CTC’s regular and fruitful exchange of views with the Federal Security Service.

Mr. Chairman

The last one year has been an eventful year for the Committee. I should like to recall that on the 10th Anniversary of the establishment of the 1373 Committee, on 28 September 2011, the Committee organized a Special Meeting at the UN in New York with participation from member-states, UN entities, international and regional organizations.

During the Special Meeting, the Committee adopted an Outcome Document, which is a major landmark in providing strategic direction to the work of the Committee aimed at strengthening capacity of States in their counter-terrorism efforts. It raised the benchmark in the fight against terrorism to a higher level and approved a zero-tolerance approach which is now part of the counter-terrorism lexicon.

Coinciding with this Special Meeting, the Committee issued an updated global survey of the implementation of Security Council resolution 1373 (2001). The global survey provides a comprehensive overview – on regional as well as thematic basis – of the status of counter-terrorism efforts around the world and evaluates Member States strengths and vulnerabilities, identifies gaps in implementation of resolution 1373 (2001), and recommends further action.

The Committee also issued a global survey of the implementation by Member States of Security Council resolution 1624 (2005) in December, 2011. Both these global surveys suggested regional approaches and recommended areas for improvement.

Next month, the Committee intends to organize with Member States, international and regional organizations including FATF and FATF style regional bodies focussing on “preventing and suppressing terrorist financing”

Further, as part of its outreach efforts, the Committee will also explore the possibility of collaboration with the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

The Committee, through CTED, has also been constantly improving its analytical tools to monitor and assess the progress in implementation of resolutions 1373 (2001) and 1624 (2005) around the world. Having developed Preliminary Implementation Assessments of the entire UN membership and achieving considerable progress in stocktaking, the Committee has agreed to a revised assessment tools including the Overview of Implementation Assessment (OIA) and the Details of Implementation Survey (DIS). These tools are designed to further enhance thoroughness, consistency, transparency and even-handedness in the Committee’s stocktaking process with a view to identifying States’ strengths and challenges in countering terrorism worldwide.

Mr. Chairman,

Moving forward, it is important that the mechanism that has been developed to pool the resources and the knowledge of the international community needs to be augmented and made more effective.

I am happy to note the efforts of the Federal Security Service in developing the International Counter- Terrorism Database, which would be an effective instrument in counter-terrorism cooperation for security/intelligence and law-enforcement organizations.

I am confident that our comprehensive deliberations would be helpful in enhancing our understanding of the evolving terrorist threat and in working out appropriate strategies to confront the menace.