Fourth High-Level Strategic Dialogue between the State of Qatar & UNOCT

On Sunday, 27 March, the Fourth High-Level Strategic Dialogue between the State of Qatar & the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) discussed strategic priorities and collaboration for effective United Nations support to Member States on counter-terrorism. The dialogue took stock of key achievements and impact of policy, coordination and capacity-building work supported by the State of Qatar, and discussed strategic priorities for the coming year for effective United Nations counter-terrorism support to Member States. The two sides reaffirmed their strong partnership and discussed opportunities for further collaboration.  The State of Qatar is the second largest contributor to the United Nations Trust Fund for Counter-Terrorism out of a total 35 other donors.

Mr. Vladimir Voronkov, Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism, co-chaired the dialogue with Major General Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al-Ansari, Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Chairman of the National Counter-Terrorism Committee of the Ministry of Interior, the State of Qatar. H.E. Sheikha Alya Ahmed S. Al-Thani, the Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, and H.E. Mr. Ali bin Khalfan Al Mansouri, Director, Department of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State of Qatar also participated in the meeting.

Both sides expressed their commitment to continued cooperation in the implementation of tailored, global programmes to support requesting Member States and other counter-terrorism stakeholders for:

  • Strengthening support for UN counter-terrorism processes, including the reviews of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and UN counter-terrorism reports,
  • Strengthening coordination and coherence of Member States’ counter-terrorism efforts at the international level with the support of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Compact,
  • Detecting and countering terrorist travel,
  • Integrating threat assessment into aviation security risk management frameworks,
  • Securing major sporting events, and promoting sport and its values as a tool to prevent violent extremism,
  • Protecting vulnerable targets, critical infrastructure, and soft targets,
  • Preventing violent extremism leading to terrorism, including through innovative use of behavioral insights,
  • Supporting the role of parliaments in addressing terrorism and violent extremism leading to terrorism, 
  • Supporting victims of terrorism, and 
  • Establishing national interagency coordination mechanisms, or “fusion cells.” 
     

Members of the Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact also discussed the broader cooperation between the State of Qatar and the United Nations system to deliver “all-of-UN” support to Member States and other beneficiaries. Mr. Edmund Fitton-Brown from the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team concerning the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Da’esh), Al-Qaida, the Taliban, and associated individuals, groups, undertakings, and entities., and Mr. Ahmed Seif El-Dawla from the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate contributed to identifying priorities to support Member States and other beneficiaries to address their most urgent needs and challenges considering the evolving terrorist threat.