United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Symposium on Advancing the Implementation of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy

The Symposium, jointly organized by the Government of Austria, the Executive Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations (EOSG), and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), was held in Vienna on 17-18 May 2007 and attended by more than 350 participants, representing 107 Member States and many international, subregional and regional organizations.

The purpose of the Symposium was:

to raise awareness of the Global Strategy and its more than 50 practical recommendations and provisions,
to promote its implementation as well as
to identify measures for assisting Member States in this endeavour, including by mobilizing enhanced support for the work of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force.

The symposium drew on UNODC's experience and expertise in providing technical assistance to Member States on counter-terrorism and related legal issues.

The Symposium was composed of six thematic parts:

Theme 1: The United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy: An integrated approach in addressing terrorism

Theme 2: Implementing measures to address the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism

Theme 3: Enhancing measures to prevent and combat terrorism

Theme 4: Increasing States' capacity to prevent and combat terrorism and strengthening the role of the United Nations system: Lessons learned from UNODC's technical assistance delivery

Theme 5: Respecting human rights for all and the rule of law as fundamental basis of the fight against terrorism

Theme 6: The way ahead-Advancing the implementation of the Strategy

The proceedings of the Symposium are available in a publication (pdf)