From 9 to 11 November 2015, the UNODC Terrorism Prevention Branch (UNODC/TPB) teamed up with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), to cooperate with Israel in its organization of a major international counter-terrorism conference in Tel Aviv.
With an aim to contribute to increasing dialogue and cooperation, the international conference entitled "Countering Radicalization and Violent Extremism Leading to Terrorism: the Challenge of Terrorists Acting Alone or in Small Cells" was attended by more than 100 counter-terrorism experts from 41 OSCE participating States and OSCE Partners for Co-operation countries from Central Asia, the Middle East, North America, Northern, Eastern, Central and Southern Europe. Entities such as the Anti-Terrorism Centre of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the European Union, INTERPOL, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization, the Secretariat of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute also took part in the event.
Participants shared their perceptions of the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters, including the increased risk for terrorist attacks to be perpetrated at home either by returnees from conflict hotspots, such as Syria and Iraq, or by individuals who were prevented from travelling to join terrorist groups abroad. Discussions highlighted ongoing challenges faced by competent authorities when confronted with terrorists acting alone or in small cells - in terms of inter-agency coordination, criminalization of offences and related human rights challenges, investigation, prosecution and adjudication of cases and international cooperation. Attention focused on the engagement with civil society, private sector and the media to prevent, detect and intervene, in compliance with the rule of law and international human rights law, to disrupt isolated and increasingly diffused cases of radicalization to terrorism.
The event concluded with a practical scenario-based exercise in the breakout groups which debated States' differences in approaches towards issues such as preventive detention, evidentiary thresholds for criminal justice response, removal of contents from the Internet, and other possible mitigation measures in the event of higher threat levels.
This conference presented an ideal opportunity for practical-oriented discussions on critical issues and challenges faced by counter-terrorism practitioners today when dealing with evolving nature of terrorism, intensified by new terrorist modus operandi and features. As the United Nations prepares to launch its comprehensive Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism, States voiced a strong will to strengthen their capacities to counter radicalization and violent extremism in a pre-emptive manner.