Ankara – Turkey. The United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) concluded a successful regional meeting of the Community of Practitioners. This meeting, which focused on data collection, information sharing, and operational use in cases of small arms and light weapons (SALW) trafficking and terrorism, was held in Central Asia from 14-16 June 2023 at the Turkish International Academy against Drugs and Organized Crime (TADOC) in Ankara, Turkey.
The meeting brought together fifteen national representatives from prosecutorial offices, courts, and ministries of internal affairs across Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In addition, over fifteen experts from international and regional organizations, including INTERPOL and the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, participated in the regional conference.
The event served as an interactive forum to discuss the creation of a community of practitioners skilled in preventing and combating illicit trafficking of SALW, transnational organized crime, and terrorism. The meeting aimed to strengthen common knowledge of investigative strategies and approaches, as well as of good practices and common challenges through the exchange and joint peer-to-peer analysis of actual cases relevant to the issue of terrorist use of illicit trafficking in SALW, their parts and components and ammunition.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Ulrik Ahnfeldt-Mollerup, Chief of Countering Terrorism Section of UNCCT/UNOCT, emphasized the increasing concern regarding the nexus between terrorism-firearms-organized crime and especially in the field of illicit trafficking of SALW. He referred to several UN Security Council resolutions (SCR), in particular SCR 2370 from 2017 and international conventions, that call upon States to strengthen judicial and law enforcement cooperation through effective measures to enhance exchange of information in order to prevent terrorists and criminals from acquiring SALW.In this context, he stressed the vital role of various UN entities in addressing this issue from multiple perspectives.
Ms. Simonetta Grassi, Head of the Firearms Trafficking Section of UNODC, underlined the importance of such meetings of community of practitioners fighting against illicit firearms trafficking and related crimes in order to increase the awareness on interconnection of illicit SALW trafficking with other forms of crimes, including drugs trafficking. She emphasized the need for an integrated approach—combining prevention, detection, investigation, and evidence-based methodologies—to tackle these issues. Similarly, Ms. Ashita Mittal, UNODC Regional Representative to Central Asia, noted UNODC's role in supporting governments to fortify law enforcement and criminal justice responses to detect and disrupt illicit flows and bring perpetrators to justice while adhering to international human rights standards.
Mr. Erdem Özler, Director of TADOC, pointed out Turkey's unique challenges due to its geographical location at the crossroads of three continents, making it susceptible to all kinds of crimes, including SALW trafficking and terrorism and in this regard expressed hope that Turkish experience and expertise will be useful for the experts from Central Asia.
Mr. George Braun, Deputy Director and Chief of the Counter-Terrorism Capacity Building Program at Global Affairs Canada, conveyed that the solution to the complex issue of terrorism-arms-crime nexus requires a multifaceted approach and, in this regard, strengthened criminal justice response, as well as a commitment to regional collaboration, are essential to addressing this concern. He added that Canada, through the Counter-Terrorism Capacity Building Program, is proud to support events such as the one being held today and highlighted that Canada has long recognized that its national security and the security of other countries are inextricably linked, and to that end, we will continue to work with you to tackle threats from terrorism.
The regional event was organized within the joint UNOCT and UNODC project on “Addressing the terrorism-arms-crime nexus: Preventing and combatting the illicit trafficking of small-arms and light weapons and their illicit supply to terrorists” with the financial support of Canada.
