The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), through its United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT), and the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) Secretariat organized, on 17 February, a practical Webinar on Countering the Misuse of Virtual Assets (VA) and Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) for Terrorism Financing At the webinar, 180 experts from the 21 MENAFATF Member States learned about:
- International standards, including the Delhi Declaration and the Algeria Principles,
- Regional considerations, operational perspectives on emerging trends, red flags, investigative approaches, technical evidentiary requirements, confiscation-related measures, and international cooperation mechanisms specific to VA/VASPs.
- Good practices from the FATF Global Network and case-based contributions from MENAFATF member jurisdictions, India, and Nigeria, as well as international and regional partners.
- Private-sector perspective on IT tools, capabilities, and challenges in combating the misuse of VA/VASPs for terrorism financing.
- The UNOCT Handbook on VA available in English, Russian and soon Arabic
In addition to the 21 MENAFATF countries, participants included representatives from the ISIL (Da’esh) & Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee Monitoring Team supporting the UN Security Council 1267/1989/2253, the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization – Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO-RATS), the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC), the African Union Mechanism for Police Cooperation (AFRIPOL), the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ), the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) Secretariat, the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) Secretariat, Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (Nigeria FIU), India Financial Intelligence Unit (India FIU), and more, including private-sector.
