Reinhold Lopatka addresses Third Counter-Terrorism Co-ordination Meeting of Parliamentary Assemblies in Doha, 30 January 2023DOHA, 31 January 2023 – Organized jointly by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Third Counter-Terrorism Co-ordination Meeting of Parliamentary Assemblies has brought together 16 international parliamentary assemblies in Doha to facilitate a joint review of existing counterterrorism trends and efforts. OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Vice-President and Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Countering Terrorism (CCT) Reinhold Lopatka (Austria) opened the conference Monday morning with a speech focusing on the work of parliamentarians in building trust, sharing best practices and promoting policy convergence.
As the first chair of the recently established Co-ordination Mechanism among Parliamentary Assemblies on Counter-Terrorism, the CCT presided over the meeting in conjunction with the UNOCT. Special attention was focused on recent developments in the Sahel region, which acts as a bridge between the OSCE region and the African continent, and on gender mainstreaming in counter-terrorism and prevention of violent extremism.
“It is a privilege for the OSCE PA to chair this unique co-ordination format on countering terrorism, where international experts and parliamentarians from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Arab world can work hand-in-hand,” Lopatka said. “In just a few meetings, we moved from words to our first joint actions. This is very encouraging and I look forward to bringing increased momentum to this effort.”
“The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly,” Lopatka added, “works to advance global counter-terrorism efforts in the OSCE region in synergy with its international partners. Parliamentarians are clearly responsible for shaping the legislative and policy frameworks and have a vital role in supporting the implementation of international counter-terrorism obligations too.”
Intervening in debate, CCT member Tsogtbaatar Damdid (Mongolia) said: “Implementing human rights-compliant and gender-sensitive responses is critical to ensure the success of our joint counter-terrorism actions. The OSCE PA has always placed these considerations at the core of its initiatives and we encourage all other assemblies to do the same, including with the support of the United Nations.”
With various regional parliamentary assemblies represented, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Arab Parliament, African Parliamentary Union, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Latin American and Caribbean Parliament, Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, participants reviewed relevant activities, aligned their future plans and considered a number of future joint initiatives.
Today, participants are focusing on the theme Parliamentary Policy Dialogue: Border Security and Cross Border Co-operation in the Context of Counter-Terrorism. In his keynote address, former CCT Chair Makis Voridis – currently Minister of Interior in Greece – stressed that each state can do better in ensuring that its borders remain wide open to citizens and commerce, but firmly closed to criminals and terrorists. “We need to be equipped with good laws, coherent policies, committed authorities and adequate resources,” Voridis said. “And we need to actively co-operate in good faith, thus ensuring that terrorists do not exploit any loopholes, and that our citizens are duly protected from the terrorist threat.”
In this regard, the 2019 OSCE PA Oversight Initiative on Border Security and Information Sharing was highlighted as a best practice which could be replicated by other parliamentary assemblies across the globe. By leveraging on the oversight power of national parliaments, the OSCE PA successfully contributed to the implementation of critical international obligations in the context of border security, identified key legal and operational challenges in this context and put forward a set of pragmatic recommendations to the attention of OSCE participating States.
