Global Project on Strengthening the Legal Regime Against Terrorism

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UNODC's Global Project on Strengthening the Legal Regime against Terrorism provides the overall framework for delivering technical assistance to countries. It functions as a continuing 'rolling' project, with global, sub-regional and national components. It is regularly revised and updated to ensure continued relevance of all elements and integrate new initiatives in response to new requirements. The project's overall objective is to support Member States in achieving a functional universal legal regime against terrorism in accordance with the principles of the rule of law and in related capacity-building.

The scope of assistance provided through this project has been broadening, in terms of its geographical reach, the number of States receiving assistance and the substantive content of the assistance provided. Increasingly more attention is being paid to implementation assistance, as more States ratify the universal instruments.

A three-pronged approach is pursued for technical assistance delivery:

( i) Tailor-made national-level direct assistance for each requesting country, through activities formulated and regularly refined and updated in close consultation with the recipient country officials and other partner entities, and taking fully into account the outcome of the analysis undertaken by the CTED of the national reports submitted to the CTC, as mandated by Security Council resolution 1373 (2001), as well as the directives and coordination measures of the CTC/CTED. Key elements of the methodology followed for national level technical assistance are: analysis of national legislation related to counter-terrorism; identifying the specific legislative gaps and needs of the requesting country; assisting in drafting national laws to implement the instruments relating to terrorism; recommending administrative and regulatory measures necessary for the implementation of national legislation; and t raining of criminal justice officials (especially judges and prosecutors) in the implementation of new laws and international criminal justice cooperation, including extradition and mutual legal assistance.

(ii) Sub-regional and regional level activities to support and supplement national activities. Sub-regional and regional workshops have proven to be an effective mechanism for mobilizing political and policy level support and initiating concrete measures at the national level, especially to intensify national action to ratify and implement the universal instruments against terrorism and increase international cooperation in combating terrorism. They also serve as forum for learning from each other, take stock of progress made, help identify technical assistance needs and generate substantive knowledge among the responsible officials. Follow-up sub-regional workshops assess progress made in implementing work plans, help sustain countries' commitment and identify areas where assistance is necessary.

(iii) Technical assistance tools and substantive publications to achieve a more sustained impact. Several specialized tools have been developed and disseminated and others are under elaboration. See Annex III for a listing of these tools and publications.

Regular review and refinement of the content of services are undertaken to ensure that they remain pertinent and fully targeted to address the actual and emerging needs and requirements of the countries. Accordingly, during the initial phase (2003-2006) of UNODC's counter-terrorism legal technical assistance delivery, t he focus of attention had been on the provision of assistance for facilitating the ratification and legislative implementation of the universal legal instruments against terrorism. During the later stages of that phase and thereafter, as more countries have ratified more of the universal instruments, in addition to delivering ratification assistance, increased attention is being given to providing implementation assistance, especially assistance for strengthening the capacity of national criminal justice systems to apply the provisions of the legal regime against terrorism in full conformity with the principles of rule of law and human rights. A key concern in this regard is to ensure sustained services and adequate follow-up to initial assistance efforts undertaken and thus achieve steady progress and long-term impact.

Technical Assistance Tools and Substantive Publications

In order to further assist Member States understand the provisions contained in the universal instruments, draft new legislation which complies with the requirements in the universal instruments, and enhance international cooperation in criminal matters relating to terrorism, UNODC has developed a number of technical assistance tools. These tools and publications include:

Non-linked tools may be available upon request

Other technical assistance tools are also being developed, including:

  • Manual on judicial international cooperation against terrorism
  • The emerging international legal framework for combating nuclear terrorism
  • Model law against terrorism

Online training course: INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN CRIMINAL MATTERS: A KEY TOOL IN THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM

Results and impact

Member States, with which TPB has conducted technical cooperation activities since 2002, undertook an estimated 409 new ratifications of the universal anti-terrorism instruments. Whereas in January 2003 when the global project started, only 26 countries had ratified all first 12 universal instruments, as of end May 2008, 98 countries have ratified all of them. In the same way, in January 2003, whereas 98 countries had ratified only 6 or less of the first 12 instruments, as of end May 2008 that number has been brought down to 28. Some 47 countries have new or revised counter-terrorism legislation in different stages of adoption. The capacity of national criminal justice systems of some 100 countries has been strengthened to implement the legal regime against terrorism, through the training of some 6,700 criminal justice officials from these countries.

 

Evaluation of UNODC's counter-terrorism technical assistance delivery

A preliminary evaluation of TPB's technical assistance activities has been undertaken in 2006 by UNODC's Independent Evaluation Unit, covering a selected number of key countries in Francophone Africa and Latin America. The evaluation report was issued in early 2007 and is electronically accessible, available at UNODC's website: http://www.unodc.org/pdf/07-83579_Ebook.pdf. The major finding of the evaluation is that "there was a clear indication from all stakeholders that the technical assistance provided by TPB had been extremely useful, effective and appropriate". It further concluded that TPB's technical assistance initiatives have contributed to the speeding up of the ratification process in many countries.

A comprehensive evaluation of TPB's Global Project, covering all regions and the period 1 January 2003 to June 2007, was carried out by UNODC's Independent Evaluation Unit (report accessible at: http://www.unodc.org/intranet_eval/docs/2007/V0851035FINALEDITEDVERSION3April08.pdf). The evaluation analyzed the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the Global Project in delivering technical assistance, the efficiency of the overall management of the project by TPB and the sustainability of the benefits generated by the project. The evaluation reached very positive conclusions in all these aspects, highlighting several major lessons learned and best practices, and made nine recommendations with respect to the future work of the ongoing rolling project.

The evaluation noted that, in most countries visited by the evaluation team, appreciation was shown for the technical assistance provided by TPB to enable States to ratify and implement the universal legal instruments against terrorism. The evaluation concluded that Member States considered the Global Project to be a relevant contribution to their efforts to counter terrorism. The evaluation team "found nearly universal appreciation for the content and relevance of the [training] workshops." The team also found that "States had achieved significant outcomes pertaining to the ratification of the counter-terrorism instruments, the development and adoption of counter-terrorism legislation, the establishment of partnerships and the strengthening of political will against terrorism."