Reinhold LopatkaCOPENHAGEN, 18 February 2021 – Building on strategic partnerships and leveraging parliamentary assets such as policymaking and oversight are essential components of an effective counter-terrorism strategy, participants said today at the 10th Meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Ad Hoc Committee on Countering Terrorism (CCT).

Chaired by Austrian parliamentarian Reinhold Lopatka, the meeting featured participation by Ambassador Tobias Lorentzson, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Delegation of Sweden to the OSCE, and Ambassador Alena Kupchyna, Co-ordinator of Activities to Address Transnational Threats at the OSCE Secretariat. CCT members were joined by OSCE PA President Peter Lord Bowness and Secretary General Roberto Montella, as well as by several representatives of the OSCE executive structures, UN Office of Counter-Terrorism and Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean.

In his remarks, CCT Chair Lopatka stressed the importance of OSCE parliamentarians building partnerships with the OSCE executive structures and other international organizations. “We are facing many challenges and there is clearly plenty of work ahead of us,” Lopatka said. “I believe it is extremely important to focus each time on where we can play a more prominent role, thus bringing a tangible contribution within the international community.”

To do so, Lopatka stressed the need to promptly tackle key threats as they arise and to strengthen partnerships within the OSCE and with other international actors.

“When taking measures to prevent and counter radicalization and terrorism, a comprehensive security and whole-of-society approach must be ensured,” said Amb. Lorentzson, representing the Swedish OSCE Chairpersonship. “Parliamentarians, as lawmakers and representatives of the public, play a crucial role in this regard.”

Alena KupchynaRepresenting the OSCE Transnational Threats Department (TNTD), Amb. Kupchyna highlighted planned work in co-operation with OSCE parliamentarians. “TNTD plans further activities promoting international legal co-operation in terrorism cases as well as on the assistance for parliamentarians working on preventing and countering terrorism and violent extremism and we are looking forward to joining forces with the OSCE PA’s Ad Hoc Committee in this endeavor,” she said.

In the discussion, members raised points regarding prosecution of foreign terrorist fighters, detention policies and the collection of battlefield evidence, online radicalization, the role of social media in preventing violent extremism, and the importance of gender mainstreaming in counter-terrorism work. Pia Kauma reported on her recent meetings in Kazakhstan which focused on repatriation of FTFs and their families. She highlighted a number of efforts by the authorities in Kazakhstan to support reintegration and rehabilitation.

Members also stressed the need to involve all OSCE participating States in the work of counter-terrorism, to work co-operatively and avoid confrontational approaches to international relations.

CCT member María Teresa Jiménez-Becerril Barrio (Spain) reported on her recent participation in the UN-led expert consultations to develop Model Legislative Provisions to Support and Protect the Rights and Needs of Victims of Terrorism, where she contributed as a keynote speaker at two sessions. She emphasized the need for ensure that victims of terrorism are recognized and remembered in all of the OSCE PA’s work, as well as the need to counter the glorification of terrorists.

The six Ad Hoc Committee members also discussed upcoming events, including an online Parliamentary Conference on Countering Terrorism together with the Interparliamentary Assembly of CIS Member Nations on 15 April in St. Petersburg, as well as an OSCE Regional Expert Dialogue for Legislators from South Eastern Europe and interested EU countries in the second half of 2021. The PA will also contribute to the yearly OSCE-wide Counter-terrorism conference, to be held in April 2021 in Vienna, Lopatka said.

For more on the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on Countering Terrorism, please click here.