OSCE supports regional workshop on addressing foreign terrorist fighters phenomenon
ALMATY, Kazakhstan, 20 August 2015 – A two-day Regional Workshop on the Preventive Obligations and Criminalization of Offences regarding Foreign Terrorist Fighters prescribed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2178 (2014) began today in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The event was co-organized by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department/Action against Terrorism Unit and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) with support from the OSCE Programme Office in Astana. Some 30 officials from law enforcement agencies and national security committees in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan discussed with representatives from UN Agencies and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and experts from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United Kingdom various aspects of the implementation of UNSCR 2178 at the national and regional levels.
The discussion focused on the obligations to prevent and suppress the recruiting, organizing, transporting or equipping of individuals who travel for the purpose of the perpetration, planning, preparation of or participation in terrorist acts. Possible means of government co-operation to prevent receiving or providing terrorist training and the financing of related travel were also reviewed.
“To effectively combat terrorism we must understand all the causal relationships, address the conditions conducive to spread of extremist ideas and take measures to eliminate or reduce their adverse effects by conducting at all levels a convincing awareness-raising campaign with the positive alternatives. We should involve in these counter-propaganda efforts women, their families, peers, communities, public figures and religious leaders,” said Ambassador Natalia Zarudna, Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Astana.
Dolgor Solongo, Officer-in-Charge of Implementing Support Section of the Terrorism Prevention Branch at UNODC said: “The phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters, although not new, has reached unprecedented levels in recent times, and Central Asia is one of the regions most affected by this scourge. The UNODC is ready to support countries of the region with a variety of assistance programmes to counter this challenge."
The event is part of the OSCE’s multiyear efforts to counter terrorism and to promote international co-operation in this endeavour.