Director General/Executive Director
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon. I welcome this opportunity to discuss what UNODC and our partners are doing to strengthen criminal justice responses to address the threat of foreign terrorist fighters.
The challenges to peace and security posed by foreign terrorist fighters are particularly complex.
Iraq and Syria has attracted the highest number of foreign terrorist fighters recorded to date, with estimates starting at some 30,000.
This is equivalent to some ten, fully equipped combat brigades. This is important to consider when we discuss the scope and magnitude of the problem we are dealing with. And we need to understand better who these people are.
Those seeking to return and relocate may be disillusioned and ready to disengage, or they may continue recruiting for their cause, or take their fight to other conflicts, also in other regions.
Or they may be operational returnees primed to conduct attacks. Such returnees pose a serious risk to countries well beyond Iraq and Syria, as we have tragically witnessed in many terrorist attacks in Europe and elsewhere in recent years.
At the same time, ISIL fighters who have not moved across borders pose additional dangers as they attempt to blend in with civilian populations, or re-infiltrate the areas from which they fled.
Addressing this phenomenon is further complicated by tensions and ongoing conflicts, as well as by extended and porous borders.
Many of the countries exposed to the risks of relocating and returning fighters face considerable law enforcement and criminal justice capacity gaps in countering such threats.
Concerted action and cooperation between Member States is needed to better mitigate risks. This includes improving mechanisms for information sharing, as well as coordination and collaboration between criminal justice and border security authorities.
UNODC is seeking to address these needs through targeted support.
Together with INTERPOL, we are working with the World Customs Organization to support Joint Airport Interdiction Task Forces, which have intercepted a number of travelling foreign terrorist fighters to and from armed conflict zones in Africa.
We have delivered specialized training for frontline officers at airports, developed under the AIRCOP project, in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East.
In Asia, UNODC and INTERPOL are implementing a project on identifying and interdicting foreign terrorist fighters through improved access to INTERPOL's Global Police Communications System.
UNODC is also working with the EU, with the support of the US, Japan and other donors, through our ongoing initiative on Strengthening the Legal Regime against Foreign Terrorist Fighters, in the Middle East and North Africa as well as South-Eastern Europe.
More specifically, the project is supporting States to implement Security Council resolutions 2178 and 2396, and promoting international cooperation in cases related to foreign terrorist fighters.
To date, more than 450 law enforcement officers have been trained.
In Algeria, we have supported amendments to the criminal code to target travel for the purpose of terrorism and support to foreign terrorist fighters.
In Iraq and Morocco, UNODC has assisted with drafting and updating related counter-terrorism legislation.
Our Office has also helped to establish a Multi-Agency Task Force for the Middle East and North Africa to facilitate communication and exchange on specialized terrorism-related topics.
UNODC remains committed to further strengthening these efforts, and supporting more effective law enforcement and criminal justice cooperation and action to counter the foreign terrorist fighter threat.
Allow me to conclude by thanking our partners in organizing this event.
Thank you.