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UN PhotoGeneral Assembly
103rd Plenary Meeting of General Assembly 72nd Session
Speakers shed light on their respective efforts to combat radicalization and violent extremism, as the General Assembly wrapped up its review of the Global Counter‑Terrorism Strategy today.
The Strategy was first adopted in 2006 and is reviewed every two years. On Tuesday, Member States unanimously adopted a resolution stressing the significance of a sustained and comprehensive approach to addressing the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, adding that it could not be defeated by military force, law enforcement and intelligence operations alone.
Juliana Baffoe, Senior Adviser of Norway’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, called balanced implementation of the Strategy the “best way forward”. For its part, Norway had hosted a global high‑level meeting on preventing violent extremism, strengthened its whole‑of‑society approach by highlighting the role of women, young people and civil society in rehabilitation, and used researched‑based analysis in policy development.
Fiji’s speaker said that his delegation was firmly committed to countering terrorism in all its forms, including by deploying Fijian peacekeepers in volatile regions across the world. Successful implementation of the resolution and the Strategy rested with the Member States, he said, emphasizing that countering terrorism must start by confronting the financial networks that funded them.
A representative of the Inter‑Parliamentary Union recalled that since 1996, the Union had adopted 12 resolutions related to terrorism. Further, in October 2017, the Union’s Governing Council endorsed the establishment of a high‑level advisory group on countering terrorism and violent extremism which would work to support parliamentarians in implementing international counter‑terrorism instruments and resolutions, while providing parliamentarians with tools and training, with a particular focus on rule of law and human rights.
The speaker for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) outlined various guidelines and good practices being developed by that organization. They ranged from engaging civil society in preventing and countering violent extremism, to early interventions, and gender‑sensitive operational approaches to countering terrorism. The OSCE was also conducting trainings on countering the use of the Internet for terrorist purposes and assisting States in establishing advance passenger information and passenger name record systems.
Also speaking today were the representatives of Hungary, Kazakhstan and Morocco.