The UNOCT/UNCCT Global Counter-Terrorism Programme on Cybersecurity and New Technologies held a Regional CT TECH Awareness Raising Workshop for Africa
The UNOCT/UNCCT Global Counter-Terrorism Programme on Cybersecurity and New Technologies held a Regional CT TECH Awareness Raising Workshop for Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. from 12-14 September 2023. The workshop focused on developing national counter-terrorism policies and operational responses to counter the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes, while protecting human rights. Attendees included 34 officials from 9 CT Tech partner states along with 18 participants from the Kenyan National Counter-Terrorism Centre, the European Union, the Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organization, and the Embassies of the Republic of Korea, State of Qatar, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Kenya.
During the opening session, the Director of Kenya’s National Counter-Terrorism Centre, Dr. Rosalind Nyawira, emphasized the need to create awareness on the use of ICTs for terrorist purposes, “leveraging the existing modules, including knowledge products, developed by the UN, and calibrating them to this context.”
The Head of Delegation, Ambassador of the European Union to Kenya, H.E. Ms. Henriette Geiger said that “the threat from terrorist exploitation of the increasingly available and advanced technologies is assessed to grow over the coming years. In that respect, CT TECH has been very timely and is highly relevant to combat terrorism. It contributes to our 4-pillar strategy as defined by our Counter-Terrorism Agenda of 2020: anticipate, prevent, protect, and respond”. Moreover, H.E. Ms. Geiger emphasized that promoting peaceful and inclusive societies must be at the core of our actions, with human rights and gender considerations fully integrated and respected.”
United Nations Resident Coordinator, Mr. Stephen Jackson also highlighted the centrality of human rights in counter-terrorism activities. As digital renaissance has given the same instruments to both good and bad actors, Mr. Jackson commended the CT TECH as a proactive initiative, to equip partner States with the tools needed to tackle the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes.
Chief of the Countering Terrorism Section in UNOCT/UNCCT, Mr. Ulrik Ahnfeldt-Mollerup stressed that “despite our efforts, terrorist actors, unconstrained as they are by morals or laws, continue to use technology to sow fear and disrupt our communities. We must have responses that counter this threat effectively but that are also grounded in human rights and the rule of law.”
Director of Eastern African Police Chiefs Cooperation Organization’s Counter-Terrorism Centre of Excellence, Mr. John Ngaruye Ndungutse highlighted that cybersecurity is no longer only an IT problem, but an essential issue for our connected societies. He emphasized the need to protect human rights both online and offline.
During the workshop, CT TECH Partner States shared their good practices on countering the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes and gave an overview of their country specific legislations with regards to new technologies in countering terrorism. The UNOCT/UNCCT Global Counter-Terrorism Programme on Cybersecurity and New Technologies, together with INTERPOL presented the seven knowledge products launched under CT TECH initiative during the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Week held earlier in June.
In his closing remarks, Mr. Ulrik Ahnfeldt-Mollerup stressed that “UNOCT will continue to support Member States in formulating innovative counter-terrorism approaches, recognising the need to understand, anticipate and effectively respond to terrorist exploitation of new technologies, while meaningfully safeguarding human rights.”?
The workshop in Nairobi is the first in a series of five CT TECH regional awareness raising workshops organized by UNOCT over the course of the next 3 months.
The next workshop will be convened at the end of September in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, hosting all Central Asian CT TECH Partner States, and Mongolia.
The CT TECH initiative was launched in 2022 as a joint UNOCT/UNCCT and INTERPOL undertaking, implemented under UNOCT/UNCCT Global Counter-Terrorism Programme on Cybersecurity and New Technologies and funded by the European Union. It aims to strengthen the capacities of law enforcement and criminal justice authorities to counter the exploitation of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes, as well as support the leveraging of new and emerging technologies in the fight against terrorism.