Discorso pronunciato dall’Ambasciatore Sebastiano Cardi, Rappresentante Permanente dell’Italia presso le Nazioni Unite, al Briefing in Consiglio di Sicurezza sulle Minacce alla Pace ed alla Sicurezza Internazionale causate dagli attacchi terroristici —
Mr. President,
I would like to thank the Ethiopian Presidency of the Security Council for convening this meeting with a view to bringing greater coherence and focus to the issue. I wish to take the opportunity to commend Ambassador Aboulatta, Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee, to welcome Under-Secretary-General Voronkov, Head of the newly established Office of Counter-Terrorism, and to thank Mr. David Scharia for his briefings.
Mr. President,
On this very day, 16 years ago, in the aftermath of the attacks against the United States, the Security Council took an important step in addressing the scourge of terrorism, by adopting resolution 1373, text that still represents a milestone of the international community’s effort in tackling the terrorist threat. Since then Member States have been confronted with new challenges, including the rising flow of FTFs travelling to or returning from the conflict zones, the misuse of the Internet and social media by terrorists and entities as well as the exploitation of trafficking by criminal and terrorist networks.
Mr. President,
16 years have passed from the adoption of this important resolution and its call on Member States to refrain from providing any form of support to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts, as well as to strengthen their legal and institutional capabilities to counter terrorism, could not be more timely.
In this framework we are strongly committed to contribute to international efforts. In particular, inside the Anti-Da’esh coalition, Italy is co-chairing the working group to counter the financing of terrorism.
We are providing the second contingent of the anti Dae’sh coalition that is daily supporting Iraq authorities by training the security units in fields such as intelligence, law enforcement, border control, and street policing.
Italy recognizes the relevance of the ongoing work of the ISIL-Al Qaida Sanctions Committee and its Monitoring Team, and of the Counter-Terrorism Committee and its Executive Directorate.
We appreciate, in particular, CTED’s efforts to assist Member States to achieve full implementation of Security Council resolutions.
We tribute great value to CTED’s assessment visits to Member States as vital tools to identify, inter alia, gaps, challenges, good practices and general trends. All this knowledge should be made available to relevant UN bodies and be instrumental to prioritize technical assistance interventions.
We also welcome the initiative undertaken by CTED to update the 2009 Technical Guide to reflect the requirements set by relevant resolutions of the Council as well as to provide Member States with a practical, reference tool to help ensure consistent analysis of their implementation efforts. Acknowledging the key role played by CTED in the UN counter-terrorism framework and in view of its mandate renewal, it is our hope that the Directorate will be provided with the necessary resources to continue its important work.
Mr. President,
A comprehensive approach to violent extremism and terrorism is critical, and the recent event hosted in margin of the GA on 20 September by France, Italy and UK on “Preventing the use of the Internet by terrorists” can provide important inputs for strengthening the cooperation between governments and private companies.
Italy is playing a leading role in the fight against terrorism, by focusing on training, on the contrast to all forms of financial support to terrorist groups, but also through a strong response to human trafficking, trafficking in cultural property and to illegal financial flows and money laundering.
Because terrorism and violent extremism cannot be defeated only by military means. We must also consider and address the underlying forces that facilitate violent extremism and the spread of messages of hate. We are therefore committed to supporting initiatives addressing the root causes of extremism, inter alia focusing on the contrast to radicalization in jails and supporting youth programs also through the Office of the Special Envoy on Youth.
In this wider framework, Italy has fully supported the process undertaken by the General Assembly to further enhance the existing counter-terrorism architecture as well as to ensure the balanced implementation of the four pillars of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy through the establishment of the Office led by the Under-Secretary-General Voronkov.
We think that this new body will provide very important added value both in the prevention and in the fight against violent extremism. It is our hope that the Office of Counter-Terrorism will play a key role in the coordination among the several entities involved in the CT field by contributing to identify the priority areas of intervention and by taking a proactive approach and, at the same time, avoiding overlapping, duplication of tasks or any significant impact on the mandate of other bodies.
I thank you, Mr. President
