UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson on Tuesday stressed the importance of global efforts to cut off funding for terrorism while upholding respect for human rights and the rule of law.
“If they are prevented from getting funds, their capacity to carry out attacks is severely curtailed,” Eliasson said.
He spoke on behalf of the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at a special meeting of the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) at the UN Headquarters in New York.
The meeting is designed to assess current trends and challenges in countering terrorist financing and the need for a global approach.
The prevention and suppression of terrorism financing?is one of the core requirements of resolution 1373, which the Council adopted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in U.S.
The resolution called on all countries to criminalise terrorism, deny terrorists access to financial resources and prevent terrorists
from crossing borders, among other measures.
It also set up the CTC, which is made up of council members tasked with monitoring and analysing the information provided on counter-terrorism efforts by member states.
Participants at the meeting also discussed the revised standards of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and their implications
for preventing funding of terrorism.
The inter-governmental FATF had made?a series of recommendations?recognised as the international standard for combating
of money laundering, financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Eliasson noted that terrorist operations need funding not just to buy weapons and materials to make horrific explosive devices.
“They need it to support their networks, recruit personnel, travel and communicate with each other and to conduct training and reconnaissance,’’ he said.
“The task force has promoted policies and mechanisms that have greatly enhanced our ability to prevent funding of terrorism.
“I therefore welcome the work that has recently been completed in FATF to revise those standards and make them more useful
to member states,’’ he said.
He added that the UN had engaged in global efforts to develop strategies and programmes aimed at cutting off funding for
terrorism while upholding the organisation’s values and norms.
“As in other areas of counter-terrorism, when adopting and implementing measures against terrorist financing, we need to bear
in mind the importance of respecting human rights and the rule of law.
“This is necessary not only to preserve our moral authority, but also to avoid fuelling grievances which terrorists exploit to justify
their unjustifiable actions,’’ he stated. (NAN)