UAE, IPU announce a new counter-terrorism strategy

Abu Dhabi - The 'High Level Advisory Group on Counter-Terrorism and Violent Extremism,' will work with parliament members from across the world.

The UAE and The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) have launched a ground-breaking global counter-terrorism initiative, which will help re-write international laws and approach the root causes of violent extremism, officials announced on Wednesday.
The 'High Level Advisory Group on Counter-Terrorism and Violent Extremism,' will work with parliament members from across the world, with an aim to rewrite laws and legislations and set ground-breaking changes in nations that have "real concrete issues", which make it "tempting" for the youth, the unemployed and underprivileged to join terrorist organisations.
Dr Amal Al Qubaisi, Speaker of the Federal National Council (FNC), said this was the second major meeting between the FNC and the IPU on counter-terrorism and violent extremism, as the first meeting, 'HLAG,' took place in February in Geneva.
Dr Al Qubaisi said the new High-Advisory Group shall coordinate with the UN and determine the gaps in various societies that are driving people to violence and extremism. "We will be engaging people from our parliaments and place their efforts on a deeper international level. The group will foster the role of the IPU in counter-terrorism while exchanging experiences and required practices for global parliamentary work, in order to overcome the gaps in different societies."
She pointed out that the experiences around the world in countering terrorism in the past decade reveals "this destructive phenomenon needs the efforts of all international stake holders".
She pointed out that counter-terrorism must be an exceptional priority for governments around the world, and the UAE itself has put immense and strategic efforts with global leaders, voicing its concern on the rise of extremism and working in line with the UN Resolutions.
"This will be an unprecedented initiative with all the international groups on tackling these issues.
"This is our responsibility as parliaments, in order to eliminate this phenomenon that greatly threatens our world," added Dr Al Qubaisi.
Eliminating the root-causes of terrorism
Martin Chungong, Secretary-General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, said there is certainly a great need for parliaments to fight terrorism, however, the fight must begin with looking beneath the surface of terror organisations.
"There are concrete issues we must look at, including youth unemployment. We will be developing a database of legislations. It's crucial for parliaments to know what already exists and identify gaps that must be filled.
"Countries must bring job opportunities for the youth to take them away from temptations. We want to move from just talking to acting and ensure that concrete implementations are happening on the ground." The Secretary-General stressed that parliaments play a critical role in strengthening global efforts on the prevention of terrorism, by initiating changes in legislations or enacting new legislations. "It is also parliaments who allocate resources to national actions and oversee governmental efforts to ensure their programmes respect the rule of law, due process and human rights norms."
The meeting on Wednesday, which included government officials from Australia, Argentina, Algeria, Benin, Canada, China, Egypt, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden and Uganda, also set concrete targets for parliaments to implement relevant UN and IPU resolutions; however, the details of these resolutions were not revealed.
Regarding international governments financing terrorism, Chungong said the group is politically neutral, and will not make any political considerations.
"It is up to the UN to identify threats in peace and security and address them. Our group is created to advise parliaments on how to combat terrorism effectively and will do so on the basis of relevant UN Resolutions."
jasmine@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE