The Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) has taken a range of steps over the past 15 months to ensure business continuity amid the travel restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the primary changes was the introduction of a hybrid model for conducting country assessment visits on behalf of the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), which allows CTED to continue its work to conduct certain aspects of its planned country assessments in a virtual context.
On 4 June 2021, the CTC adopted the concept note on “conducting hybrid assessment visits to some Member States pro tempore”, which states that hybrid visits should consist of a virtual component and a physical component and that both components should be led by CTED. The virtual component should focus on several key areas of implementation, in accordance with the relevant Council resolutions. The physical component should include further discussions, as well as a field mission aimed at verifying pending areas for evaluation and implementation on the ground. The concept note is posted on the CTC’s website at https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/ctc/content/working-methods and should be read in conjunction with information on the CTC’s visit framework, which may be found at https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/ctc/content/ctc-visit-framework.
On 22 April 2021, Assistant Secretary-General Michèle Coninsx, CTED Executive Director, briefed the CTC on the hybrid model, noting that it had enabled CTED to continue the core business entrusted to it by the CTC and highlighting some of the successes, good practices, and lessons learned from the virtual components of the hybrid visits conducted to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Lithuania and Malaysia in March and April 2021. The virtual components had proven to be an effective way to maintain constructive high-level and technical-level dialogue between the Member States concerned and the CTC and had enabled CTED to gather updates on States’ implementation of the relevant Council resolutions and (in the case of the follow-up visits) their implementation of the CTC’s previous visit recommendations. Virtual engagement had also enabled CTED to raise States’ awareness of new and emerging trends identified during the pandemic and had given CTED the opportunity to recommend ways for the visited States to prioritize their counter-terrorism efforts, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 restrictions and the related challenges
The virtual components of the hybrid visits to Canada and Estonia were completed in May 2021. Those of four additional hybrid visits are scheduled for June and July 2021, and further such visits are planned for the second half of the year. The visits’ physical components will be conducted when the global pandemic-related travel restrictions are lifted.
CTED remains committed to monitoring and promoting Member States’ implementation of the relevant Council resolutions and to maintaining a constructive dialogue with Member States despite the COVID-19 restrictions, acting under the guidance of the CTC.