Director General/Executive Director
Delivered on behalf of the UNODC Executive Director by Chief, UNODC Terrorism Prevention Branch
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, I thank the organizers of today's event, which addresses a challenge of increasing concern to the international community.
Two recently adopted UN Security Council resolutions, namely resolutions 2482 and 2462, highlight the threat of terrorists benefitting financially and logistically from transnational organized crime.
This includes profiting from the trafficking of drugs, illicit arms, cultural property and natural resources, as well as human trafficking, kidnapping for ransom and other crimes such as extortion and bank robbery.
Too often, the challenges posed by transnational organized crime and terrorism are tackled in isolation.
Addressing the linkages between transnational organized crime and terrorism requires the international community to work together to close gaps in criminal justice responses and deny criminals and terrorists any safe haven.
UNODC, with its broad mandates addressing transnational organized crime, drugs, corruption and terrorism, and years of experience in providing capacity building across the spectrum of criminal justice issues, is well-placed to support governments in taking integrated action to cut off all material and financial support for terrorism.
Based on our Office's long-standing experience, I would highlight the following three essential elements to an effective response.
Firstly, governments can take decisive steps to ensure coherence between domestic anti-crime and counter-terrorism legislation with relevant regional and international conventions and protocols.
I refer here to the Conventions on transnational organized crime, corruption and drugs, as well as the global instruments against terrorism and the UN standards and norms on crime prevention and criminal justice.
These treaties enjoy near-universal acceptance and should be put to good use.
Secondly, governments need to reinforce national inter-agency cooperation as well as regional and international cooperation, including information and intelligence sharing.
This is increasingly important as globalization and advanced technologies have further complicated the fight against illicit financial flows, organized crime, and terrorism.
And thirdly, we need more resources to build specialized expertise and capacity to detect and investigate these crimes, including among Financial Intelligence Units and criminal justice officials.
This includes training for law enforcement, coast guards, border and airport officials, prosecutors, judges, prison officers and other relevant officials.
UNODC, through our network of field offices and country, regional and global programmes, is already actively supporting these capacity-building efforts, in close partnership with UNOCT and CTED and as a key element in the implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.
Furthermore, Security Council resolution 2842 calls on UNODC and OCT to take the lead in developing a report on the actions taken by Member States and the Global Compact entities to counter terrorism-crime linkages.
Excellencies,
Terrorism and organized crime are global challenges, with global consequences. This meeting can build on and further advance comprehensive action to address linkages and deprive terrorists of resources to carry out their deadly attacks.
UNODC is here to support you. Thank you.