From 7 – 21 December 2020, the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) led a virtual deep-dive assessment mission to the Maldives, in the areas of passenger data exchange and countering terrorism. The mission’s purpose was to gain an in-depth understanding of the Maldives’ capacities to implement Advance Passenger Information (API) and Passenger Name Record (PNR) in order to detect, identify and prevent the movement of foreign terrorist fighters and serious criminals in their attempts to cross international air borders, in accordance with Security Council resolutions 2178 (2014), 2396 (2017) and 2482 (2019). Further, the deep-dive was conducted on the basis of recommendations made pursuant to the Counter-Terrorism Committee’s comprehensive visit to the Maldives in 2019.
The deep-dive forms part of a series of assessments that CTED is leading under the UN Countering Terrorist Travel Programme; a global “All-of-UN” initiative spearheaded by the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism in partnership with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the UN Office of Information and Communication Technology (OICT) and the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL).
Since becoming a partner of the Programme, CTED has led eight “All-of-UN” deep-dive assessment missions. Following each deep-dive, CTED, in co-operation with the Programme partners, uses the findings from the mission to develop a national API and PNR implementation “Roadmap” for the Member State, which is a single document that sets out all steps needed to implement API and PNR accompanied by tailored recommendations on how the State can implement each of these steps in full compliance with the requirements and objectives of Security Council resolutions 2178 (2014), 2396 (2017), 2482 (2019) and other relevant international standards and obligations. The “Roadmap” also sets out specific areas of technical assistance that can be provided to the Member State by the programme.