New York - Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
Today, Tuesday, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the work of the third high-level conference on combating terrorism, which will be held on June 19 and 20, continued as part of the activities of the third week of combating terrorism. According to the United Nations news bulletin, a copy of which we received this morning
"Terrorism affects every region of the world, feeding on the weaknesses and instability of political, security and economic systems," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his opening speech.
Guterres added that terrorism is rampant amid the complex crises the world is experiencing, including food, energy and climate change.
The Secretary-General stated that terrorism continues to flourish and grow despite some important gains that have been made over the years. "As this conference reminds us, when it comes to fighting terrorism, we must stand together against this global threat," he said.
Guterres recalled that through the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact, the United Nations provides practical and coordinated support to member states, and helps countries implement the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.
four domains
The United Nations Secretary-General said that the Counter-Terrorism Week is an opportunity to build on the progress achieved so far, pointing out the need to focus on four areas, the first of which is "strengthening the main tool in counter-terrorism efforts, which is the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy."
In this regard, Guterres said he hoped the General Assembly would adopt a draft strategy review resolution this week.
The Secretary-General explained that the second point that must be focused on is prevention, saying, “Prevention does not mean only thwarting attacks or plots. It also means dealing with the conditions that lead to terrorism in the first place, including poverty, discrimination, discontent, weak infrastructures, fragile organizations, and human rights violations.” Human".
Guterres said that prevention means comprehensiveness, stressing the importance of counter-terrorism strategies and measures reflecting all societies and voices, especially minorities, women and youth, and that these strategies not hinder the work of civil society.
As for the third area that should be focused on, according to the Secretary-General, it is human rights, and he said that "human rights can be the greatest weapon in the fight against terrorism."
Guterres noted that the focus on human rights includes repatriation efforts. He talked about Al-Hol camp and other camps in Syria, in which there are more than 50,000 people living under difficult security and humanitarian conditions.
Guterres praised Iraq and other countries, who are working to return their citizens from these camps. He renewed his call to all United Nations Member States to help accelerate the pace of returns, as an urgent priority.
The fourth point to focus on is financing, according to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. He called on Member States to fulfill their obligations and secure the necessary resources to deal with this common challenge.
The third anti-terrorism week runs until June 23. It witnesses the holding of many side events that focus on initiatives related to the four pillars of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, in addition to the main topic of the third high-level conference for heads of agencies and bodies responsible for combating terrorism of Member States, which is "dealing with terrorism through active multilateralism and institutional cooperation."