Family photo of the Ministerial meeting participants, with H.E. Prime Minister Rajoy at the centre.
Immediately following a special meeting of the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee held in Madrid on stemming the flow of foreign terrorist fighters, a Ministerial summit on the same theme was convened by the Prime Minister and Head of the Government of Spain, H.E. Mariano Rajoy Brey, on 28 July 2015. Thanking Spain for hosting the meeting, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a video message stressed that the growing spread of violent extremism “demands urgent international attention.”
The Ministerial summit, which saw the active participation of 48 Ministers from all continents, including H.E. José Manuel García-Margallo, Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Cooperation, and H.E. Jorge Fernández Díaz, Interior Minister of Spain, was inter alia attended by H.E. Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaité, Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the United Nations in New York, and Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), Jean-Paul Laborde. The summit concluded by endorsing the preliminary conclusions of the Committee, which in turn were based on input from over 400 experts from all over the world elaborated during the preceding day’s technical sessions, organised by CTED.
Among the listed recommendations in the Madrid Ministerial declaration is the proposal to better promote universal values and to work closer with Internet service providers, as one means to stop the criminal propaganda of terrorist groups, the spread of messages of incitement to violence and recruitment through social media networks, including the glorification of cruel acts which causes tremendous suffering to victims. The Madrid declaration also underscored the need for States to redouble their efforts in stemming the flow of foreign terrorist fighters, including by significantly making it considerably more difficult for these individuals to travel to conflict zones. The declaration further underlined the importance of analysis undertaken by CTED of emerging trends and challenges, as well as the identification of good practices in the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions related to the fight against terrorism, and welcomed the cooperation of CTED with civil society and academic institutions, including the recent launch of the Global Research Network. The complete Madrid Ministerial declaration can be found here.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban delivering his remarks via video message.
Following the Ministerial summit, CTED facilitated a roundtable discussion among stakeholders to kick-start concrete follow-up action that can facilitate a quicker implementation of Security Council resolution 2178 (2014).