Press Release
Workshop on enhancing capacities of West African Member States in the domain of law enforcement and counter-terrorism
15-16 June 2009, ACSRT, Algiers
On 15 and 16 June 2009, the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) co-organized with the African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism (ACSRT) a workshop for West African Member States on law enforcement and combating terrorism held in ACSRT in Algiers . The workshop was funded by the Government of Algeria which was presented by the Counsellor to the President of the Algerian Government, Mr. Rezaq Bara.
This workshop was a follow-up to the informal forum for representatives of West African Member States and donor countries and organizations, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 11 July 2007. That forum resulted in identifying common technical assistance needs for West African Member States in the following priority fields: legal, financial law and practice, law enforcement and border control.
CTED & ACSRT partnered together and through the facilitation of the former the latter held this works in its premises where the following themes were discussed: the role of law enforcement in combating terrorism; the legislative and operational framework for combating small arms and light weapons (SALW); national practices of West African Member States.
The workshop was attended by a large number of West African Member States and international and regional organizations, which included: INTERPOL, EUROPOL, the European Commission, and the European Counter-Terrorism Coordinator.
The workshop provided participants from West African Member States with a comprehensive overview of the available international and regional best codes and practices to combat terrorism; especially in accordance with Security Council resolution 1373 (2001).
Representatives of CTED, Mr. Mike Smith, CTED Executive Director; Mr. Ahmed Seif El-Dawla, CTED Chief of Section (Africa and the Middle East); and Mr. Jean-Philippe Morange, CTED legal officer, opened the workshop and shared with experts updates on the works of the Counter-Terrorism Committee. They also discussed, with Ambassador Lamamara, the African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security; Ambassador Boubacar Diarra, ACSRT Director; and Mr. Idriss Mounir Lallali, ACSRT Head of Alert and Prevention Unit, the follow up actions to this workshop.
Both CTED and ACSRT will continue working together and follow up on merging their international and regional expertise to enhance West African Member States' counter-terrorism capacities. Further sub-regions will be also addressed in the course on their ongoing cooperation.
|
