Only few days after the inauguration of the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law in Malta (IIJ), the Terrorism Prevention Branch of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC/TPB) and the IIJ, held a regional workshop on cross-border cooperation related to the fight against the financing of terrorism and other serious crimes. The workshop was held in La Valetta, Malta, from 23 to 25 June 2014.
UNODC/TPB is the first institution to cooperate with the newly born IIJ. The regional workshop was a part of the UNODC/TPB project for Libya aiming to support Libya's efforts towards the development of a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy, an implementation plan to prevent and counter terrorism and the promotion of an effective and rule of law-based comprehensive criminal justice response to terrorism. The Libya project is framed for 18 months and is funded by the generous contributions from Japan and the United States of America.
Thirty-eight senior professionals, including judges, prosecutors, heads of financial intelligence units and law enforcement officers from Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Niger, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia participated in the workshop, along with prominent international experts from Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences.
Comprehensive and in-depth discussions took place and national experiences of the participating countries in countering the financing of terrorism were presented during the regional workshop. The audience actively engaged and thoroughly analyzed those experiences versus their own level of compliance with the requirements of the universal legal instruments, the rule of law and human rights.
The very positive feedback of participants, experts and IIJ officials calls for additional cooperation between UNODC/TPB and the IIJ in the future.
In June 2012, at the Ministerial Meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), the foreign ministers and other senior officials of the GCTF member states announced their strong support for the establishment of the IIJ. Two years later, on 18 June 2014, the institute was officially established. Since the inception of the process, UNODC/TPB has been regarded as a key partner and supporter of the institute. UNODC/TPB has participated in a number of preparatory meetings for the establishment of the institute and fully supported the work on both the foundational documents of the IIJ, as well as on the development of its training curriculum.