During the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, hosted by the Government of Qatar in Doha, from 12 to 19 April 2015, UNODC organized a High-Level Special Event on Strengthening National and International Cooperation in Preventing and Countering Terrorist Financing on 14 April 2015. The event aimed to discuss how combatting the financing of terrorism can contribute to prevent and disrupt terrorist activities, as well as to review ongoing counter terrorism financing work carried out by Member States and key organizations, highlighting areas where gaps still exist and exploring potential for capacity building programmes.
The high-level special event, that was moderated by the Chief of the Terrorism Prevention Branch, Mr. Trevor Rajah, included the interventions of the UNODC Executive Director, Mr. Yuri Fedotov, the Minister of Justice of Lebanon, Mr. Ashraf Rifi, the Acting Minister of Justice of Afghanistan, Mr. Said Yusuf Halem, the Deputy Minister of Interior of Iraq, Mr. Aqeel Kareem Khazel, and the Executive Director of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, Mr. Jean-Paul Laborde.
In addressing the Special Event, the UNODC Executive Director mentioned that we have witnessed the strengthening and increased sophistication of links between transnational organized criminal networks and terrorists in many regions of the world. He noted that the gravity of this worrying nexus had been recognized by the United Nations Security Council in its recent resolutions 2195 and 2199. The two resolutions highlighted the importance of redoubling efforts to prevent terrorists from benefiting from transnational organized crime. Going after the terrorist 'business model' and disrupting financial flows remains a major challenge, one that requires a comprehensive, integrated approach that reaches out to all sectors and actors involved, private and public, and leaves no gaps for the terrorists and criminals to exploit. He also referred to the working group chaired by UNODC on countering the financing of terrorism, as part of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force.
Intervention by other speakers focused on experiences from Member States in particular in the MENA region and Afghanistan in developing and implementing strategies on countering new forms of terrorism financing, pointing out at the increasing links between terrorist groups and organized crime, as well as at the use of criminal activities as a source of terrorist financing, including trafficking in drugs, arms, cultural property, oil and kidnapping for ransom or for the purpose of extortion. International cooperation was also deemed as essential in these areas as was ratifying and fully implementing the relevant United Nations instruments against terrorism and its financing.
A discussion followed with interventions from the floor of a number of delegations. The side-event raised awareness among a significant number of delegations attending the 2015 Crime Congress on the need to strengthen a preventative criminal justice approach to counter terrorism, that includes focusing on disrupting financial flows related to terrorism. It also reinforced the attention devoted by the Congress to counter-terrorism issues, complementing the detailed and effective language on counter-terrorism that had been included in the Doha Declaration, which had been adopted unanimously on 12 April 2015.