Summit to Counter Violent Extremism: U.S. Secretary of State H.E. John Kerry (centre), with Assistant Secretary-General Jean-Paul Laborde second to the right from Mr. Kerry
The White House Summit to Counter Violent Extremism: U.S. Secretary of State H.E. John Kerry (centre), with Assistant Secretary-General Jean-Paul Laborde second to the right from Mr. Kerry
Beginning on 17 February 2015, the White House is hosting a three-day Summit on Countering Violent Extremism in Washington, DC. In light of recent, tragic events around the world, the White House Summit highlighted domestic and international efforts to prevent violent extremists and their supporters from radicalizing, recruiting, or inspiring individuals or groups in the United States and globally to commit acts of violence.
As a component of the White House Summit, the Department of State on 18 February 2015 hosted Ministers, senior officials from the United Nations – including the Executive Director of the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), Assistant Secretary-General Jean-Paul Laborde, as well as Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) Director Jehangir Khan – and other multilateral organisations.
“The threat posed by the foreign terrorist fighter phenomenon to international peace and security is acute and growing,” said Executive Director Laborde, recalling the importance of Security Council resolution 2178 (2014) and its emphasis on the need to implement effective border controls to counter this threat. “The collection and exchange of information about radicalized individuals
[…] is a vital part of efforts to impede the cross-border movement of foreign terrorist fighters.”
Focusing his intervention on so-called advance passenger information (API), Assistant Secretary-General Laborde underscored that currently only 47 Member States have some form of API in place: “Those who lack the capacity to establish such a system are unable to do so for various reasons, including lack of political will, resources, capacity, expertise, or requisite technologies.”
In conclusion, the Executive Director stressed that “API is not a goal in itself, but should serve to enable relevant national authorities to employ evidence-based traveler risk assessment and screening procedures with a view not only to stemming the flow of foreign terrorist fighters and terrorists in general, but also to combating trans-border organized crime.”
Resolution 2178 (2014) entrusted the Counter-Terrorism Committee and its Executive Directorate a number of tasks pertaining to the foreign terrorist fighter phenomenon, including to identify gaps of Member States, to promote good practices, and to facilitate the delivery of technical assistance aimed at enhancing Member States’ capacity-building in this area. The Security Council in its presidential statement on 19 November 2014 also tasked CTED to produce a report on the gaps of the use of API, with corresponding recommendations.