Advisory Board meeting UN Counter-Terrorism Centre

– As delivered –

Statement by H.E. Tijjani Muhammad Bande, President of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly

20 January 2020

Excellencies,

Dear colleagues;

First of all, I would like to thank the Chair of the Advisory Board, the Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia H.E. Abdallah Y. Al-Mouallimi for his leadership and for inviting me to this meeting. I commend the Advisory Board for its contribution to combatting the menace of terrorism globally. I would like to pay my tribute to the victims of the terrorism worldwide.

Colleagues,

The scourge of terrorism continues to evolve and pose significant threat to international peace and security, development and human rights. I therefore hope that the 7^th review of the Global Counter Terrorism Strategy (GCTS) during this resumed session will address the major trends of this threat and support our collective strategy and comprehensive approach to addressing the menace.

Excellencies, Colleagues,

Terrorism is transnational and, as such, the approach to addressing it must be multinational. In this regard, the GCTS negotiations process provides us an opportunity to have an inclusive and transparent conversation on this important matter.

In this regard I have appointed the Permanent Representatives of Egypt and Spain, our two distinguished, able and trusted colleagues, as co-facilitators for the GCTS review.

I encourage you to engage in this process and offer your full support to them. I am hopeful that we can adopt a markedly improved and comprehensive strategy to be collectively implemented by all of us.

To achieve such an outcome, my office and the co-facilitators are committed to working with all Member States in an open and inclusive manner to ensure a successful outcome of the review.

In addition, we will work with the UN Office of Counter Terrorism (UNOCT) under their leadership for the smooth organization of the Counter Terrorism Week later this year, which will begin with the adoption of the Global Counter Terrorism Strategy. I would like to thank the UNOCT for its support so far and I look forward to working with them in strengthening the UN Counter Terrorism framework even further.

Colleagues,

As we approach the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, it is incumbent upon us all to ensure that the Organisation is even more fit for purpose. In relation to countering terrorism, this, presupposes demonstrating a united front in our response to Terrorism and Violent Extremism. Indeed, our experience in fighting terrorism has shown that we can only succeed in resolving common challenges if we have a strong United Nations. In this regard, we must work together to deliver on our joint commitment to serve the peoples of the world in this area as in others.

Colleagues,

I thank the members of this Advisory Board for their sterling efforts towards strengthening the UNOCT, as well as their policy and technical support in the implementation and promotion of the Global Counter Terrorism Strategy.

The UN Counter Terrorism Centre, under the Chairmanship of Saudi Arabia and with the support of the UNOCT, has remained at the forefront of taking UN’s work on counter terrorism to the national and regional levels. For this I would like to congratulate the UNCCT leadership, its Advisory Board and the UNOCT.

I wish us the very best in this crucial work going forward and thank you in advance for your support to our work and to the co-facilitators appointed to review the GCTS.

Thank you