Foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) constitute one of the major threats to international peace and security. United Nations Security Council Resolution 2178 (2014) defines FTFs as individuals who travel or attempt to travel to a State other than their States of residence or nationality "for the purpose of the perpetration, planning, or preparation of, or participation in, terrorist acts, or the providing or receiving of terrorist training."
In line with the need to effectively respond to the challenges posed by FTFs, the UNODC's Terrorism Prevention Branch (TPB) held a national workshop for Serbia on normative and administrative challenges relating to the FTF threat in Belgrade on 30 November - 1 December 2017.
Judges, prosecutors and representatives from relevant national institutions shared their experiences on cases involving FTFs and had the opportunity to learn from presentations by international experts from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The participants also discussed the international legal framework applicable to FTFs.
The workshop was organized under the Project on Strengthening the Legal Regime against Foreign Terrorist Fighters in the Middle East, North Africa and South Eastern Europe, funded by the European Union. Throughout the next steps of the initiative, which will run until 2020, TPB will organize and deliver specialized national training workshops on the operational challenges related to FTF investigations, on the protection and use of intelligence information in investigations and prosecutions of FTF cases, and on special investigation techniques to counter terrorist activities on the Internet.