UN General Assembly Approves Creation of New UN Office of Counter Terrorism

The United Nations General Assembly has approved the establishment of a new United Nations office of counter-terrorism to help Member States implement UN’s global counter-terrorism strategy.

Salient Highlights

With the creation of new UN office of counter terrorism, UN will transfer the relevant functions out of the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA) into the new body.
The Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force Office (CTITF) and the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) currently under the DPA will be transferred to the new office together with existing staff and associated budgetary resources.
The new UN Office of counter-terrorism would he headed up by an Under-Secretary-General. The new Under-Secretary-General would Chair the Task Force and Executive Director of the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre.

Functions

The new office will have the following five main functions:

• To provide leadership on the counter-terrorism mandates entrusted to it across the United Nations system.
• To enhance coordination and coherence across the 38 Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force entities for ensuring balanced implementation of the four pillars of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.
• To strengthen the delivery of United Nations counter-terrorism capacity-building assistance to the Member States.
• To improve visibility, advocacy and resource mobilization for United Nations counter-terrorism efforts; and
• To ensure that priority is given to counterterrorism across the United Nations system.

India’s Views

India has welcomed the creation a UN office on counter-terrorism. It expects that the “much- awaited” step will help in aligning UN with the changing needs and international reality in the fight against terrorism.
India has been repeatedly stressing on the need to have a separate office for counter-terrorism as the presence of as many as 31 entities within the United Nations dealing with some aspect of countering terrorism lacked coherence and coordination in dealing with terrorism.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2017