SC - Joint Statement on the cooperation between the Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee, the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) and the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1540 (2004)
Statement by the Permanent Representative of Austria, Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Harting
New York, 15 November 2010
On behalf of the Chairmen of the three subsidiary bodies of the Security Council established pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1373 (2001) and 1540 (2004) dealing with terrorism, I would like to give an update on the continued cooperation among the Committees and their expert groups as requested by the Security Council in recent resolutions pertaining to the three Committees, notably in resolutions 1805 (2008), 1810 (2008) and 1904 (2009).
The three Committees attach great importance to the coordination and cooperation among their expert groups, namely the Monitoring Team, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and the 1540 Committee Experts. The Committees welcome the continuing efforts of the expert groups regarding joint outreach activities, exchange of information and joint meetings and encourage the groups to further enhance coordination of these activities.
On the occasion of previous briefings, a comparative table was issued to highlight the main aspects of the respective mandates and areas of competence of the three Committees and their expert groups. Today, in order to highlight the ongoing cooperation among the three expert groups, we also intend to distribute a table prepared by the three expert groups containing information about the main areas of cooperation. This table will also be posted on the respective websites. I will focus in my speech only on the following main aspects of cooperation.
Outreach
Cooperation is of the utmost importance when it comes to outreach and exchange with Member States and international organizations. Cooperation has increased regarding coordination of visits to Member States and participation at relevant conferences, joint visits to States and participation in workshops organized by one of the expert groups or under the auspices of one of the Committees that may be relevant to the mandates of the other Committees and their expert groups.
The Committees continue to believe that these coordinated visits and workshops are very important tools to enhance the dialogue with Member States, to help improve the understanding of the distinct though connected and complementary mandates of the three Committees, and to assist Member States in the implementation of the relevant resolutions.
We welcome, as an important step in this regard, the recently finalized common strategy of the three expert groups to engage with international, regional and sub-regional organizations in a coordinated and complementary way, which has been discussed and taken note of by all three Committees.
The expert groups are currently preparing a modalities paper for the implementation of this coordinated approach with regard to four organizations which have been chosen as the pilot projects for this common strategy.
In addition to the above mentioned activities, the expert groups provide briefings to regional organizations which have missions in New York, such as the African Union, Pacific Island Forum and CARICOM.
The three expert groups also continue to implement the common strategy on dealing with non- or late-reporting States through exchange of information and joint visits, when appropriate, and in assisting Member States in submitting their responses to the three Committees on their implementation of the relevant Security Council resolutions.
In accordance with the needs expressed by Member States, the three expert groups have commenced exchanging information on the technical assistance needs of particular countries to with a view to furthering cooperation in this domain, while bearing in mind the different mandates and roles of each Committee with regard to technical assistance.
Exchange of information
Another important area of cooperation is the matter of information exchange. At present, the three expert groups are sharing some of their respective reports on visits and are currently exploring the modalities to systematically share all country and trip reports. Furthermore, they exchange information on the results of such visits to coordinate follow-up and future activities.
When an expert group does not participate in a visit, it offers relevant information on the Member State(s) that are being visited to the expert group making the visit. There are also exchanges of information on relevant contacts and focal points designated by States for the domestic implementation of the respective resolutions. In addition, CTED continues to share with the two other expert groups the monthly reports of the Executive Director which include reports on all trips made by CTED. Furthermore, CTED and the 1267 Monitoring Team have made a reciprocal arrangement for access to their electronic databases, which has been extended to the 1540 expert group. Access to the 1540 legislative database and the information from its matrices is underway.
Joint meetings
In addition to outreach activities and internal exchange of information, the three expert groups continue regular meetings among the heads of each team, as well as at the expert level, in preparation for visits, workshops and other joint activities related to specific countries, regions or themes.
Moreover, CTC invites the Monitoring Team, the 1540 Committee Experts, CTITF and other relevant UN offices on a regular basis to meetings with international and regional organizations and to its thematic briefings in the framework of its official meetings.
In the last six months, these thematic discussions have been held on various topics, such as ‘Crimes that fund terrorism’, ‘Facilitating the provision of technical assistance to Member States’, ‘Human rights in the context of resolution 1373 (2001), and “Helping Member States to implement the "Safe Haven" requirements of resolution 1373 (2001)”.
The 1540 Committee Working Group on Cooperation with International Organizations has also invited the other two expert groups to meetings with international organizations.
(including a briefing from UNICRI and a briefing from an EU representative).
Co-location
Co-location of the three expert groups would greatly contribute to enhanced cooperation and information exchange among them. In this context, I would like to recall that in resolution 1904 (2009) adopted on 17 December 2009, and recently reaffirmed in the Presidential Statement S/PRST/2010/19 adopted on 27 September 2010, the Security Council reiterated the need to enhance ongoing cooperation among the three Committees as well as their respective expert groups and requested the Secretary General to make the necessary arrangement for the groups to be co-located as soon as possible. In order to underline the importance of this matter, the three Chairmen have recently written to the Secretary General to draw his attention to this request by the Security Council.
Cooperation within the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF)
Since the three expert groups are also members of the CTITF, the Task Force provides an additional framework within which the three expert groups can further coordinate their activities and share information. The expert groups contribute to the work of several CTITF Working Groups, and the Monitoring Team and CTED have assumed leading functions in some of these Groups. The three expert groups also participate in the Integrated Assistance for Countering Terrorism (I-ACT) Initiative.
After a first joint meeting between the three expert groups and the CTITF Secretariat earlier this year, the heads of the three expert groups continue to meet regularly with the Chair of CTITF. These meetings provide an opportunity to review current joint work and to identify other areas which could be used to utilise their respective areas of expertise and capacity within the UN system as partners in a joint effort to assist Member States to better implement the respective resolutions pertaining to their work.
Conclusion
Terrorism and WMD proliferation to non-state actors continue to be a global threat to international peace and security requiring a global answer. Cooperation and coordination are therefore crucial elements in the efforts to counter the threat of terrorism, including the use of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons for terrorist purposes. The three subsidiary bodies of the Security Council and their respective expert groups are committed to continue to cooperate and to coordinate their work, within their respective mandates, in order to contribute to an effective and efficient approach within the overall UN framework, and within the broader efforts of the international community. As the cooperation among the three Committees ought to be implemented at all levels, we recently convened a meeting with representatives of the three Committee Chairmen and the three expert groups to exchange information about the status of ongoing cooperation and to explore further ways to enhance it. We hope that meetings in this format will continue to be organized on a regular basis in order to better coordinate counter-terrorism efforts of the Council. In this respect, the Committees look forward to receiving further guidance from the Council on areas of common interest and in order to enhance these joint efforts.
Further information about ongoing activities of the three Committees and the respective expert groups can be found on the following webpages:
http://www.un.org/en/sc/ctc
http://www.un.org/sc/committees/1267
http://www.un.org/sc/1540
