The event, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 9 to10 September 2014, was organized by the Terrorism Prevention Branch of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC/TPB) in cooperation with the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum (GCTF).
The purpose of the workshop was to enhance the capacity of national criminal justice institutions of Southeast Asian countries. The workshop provided a framework for the presentation and in-depth discussion of practical aspects related to the effective investigation, prosecution and adjudication of terrorism preventive criminal offences, with a special focus on the identification of good practices and considered aspects of international cooperation and human rights standards.
At the workshop, UNODC experts addressed: legal aspects of international cooperation mechanisms for combating transnational organized crime; international human rights standards; countering the appeal of terrorism and violent extremism, as well as, the experience of Afghanistan in terrorism preventive criminal offences. Discussions and exchanges were enriched by the active participation and specialized contributions of experts from the McCoubrey Centre for International Law, Global Centre on Cooperative Security, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and INTERPOL, on issues directly related to the investigation, prosecution and adjudication of terrorism preventive criminal offences.
The workshop brought together investigators, police officers, prosecutors and judges from Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam, as well as representatives from the Regional Office for South-East Asia of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Embassy of Turkey to Malaysia, all of whom provided substantive input to the event.
The workshop in Malaysia followed a previous workshop held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 12-13 November 2013, in which experience and expertise were shared with participants by practitioners from the Southeast Asian region as well as by UNODC and GCTF.