Security Council Approves New CTED Counter-Terrorism Program

Victor Comras

The Security Council voted last week to give the UN’s Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) a new lease on life until December 31, 2010. CTED was established in March 2004 (UNSC Resolution 1535) as part of a Security Council effort to “revitalize” the work of the Counter-terrorism Committee (CTC), but has been something of a disappointment ever since. Its original mandate and work program, spelled out in 2004, called for the group to keep the CTC apprised of the steps being taken by all countries to implement the counter-terrorism measures spelled out in UNSC Resolution 1373 (2001) and to facilitate the provision of assistance to countries to further such implementation. The group got off to a very slow start and seemed to lack direction, initiative, and transparency from the outset. Concern over this lack of direction was reflected in the statements issued by G8 leaders at St. Petersburg in July 2006, and again at Heiligendamm in June 2007. At the latter meeting the G8 leaders called on the CTED and the CTC “to take the necessary steps and to make their work more relevant and accessible to both the donor and recipient communities…. We will work together to strengthen CTED’s effectiveness as part of the renewal of CTED’s mandate.”

The first step in this renewal process was the appointment last October of a new CTED Executive Director, Ambassador Mike Smith (Previously Australia's UN Representative). Smith was instructed by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to overhaul CTED and to come up with a much more engaged work program. This he did. And Smith presented his new program to the Security Council on March 19th in an open session of the Security Council. His plan includes a near complete reorganization of CTED including the establishment of five new functional groups covering Arms Trafficking, Border Controls and Law Enforcement; Terrorism Financing; Legal Issues; Issued Raised by Resolution 1624(dealing with root of terrorism issues); and Technical Assistance. There would also be special emphasis, he said, on issues related to human rights aspects of counter-terrorism. Two smaller units - on quality control, and communications and outreach were also created, he said.

Smith also told the Security Council that he intended to place a much greater emphasis on evaluating the actual effectiveness of each country’s counter-terrorism measures, rather than merely on reporting whether this or that country had passed new counterterrorism legislation. His group would actually try to evaluate the effectiveness of existing counter-terrorism measures ranging from border controls to overall counter -terrorism coordination and law enforcement capabilities. The group would also work to identify and tackle specific enforcement problems, including resource and infrastructure issues. This is much to promise, but, at least, the new CTED Director is thinking in the right direction.

The Security Council formally endorsed Smith’s CTED reorganization plan on March 20th passing UNSC resolution 1805 which extends CTED’s mandate to December 31, 2010. As the United Kingdom Representative put it: “We will know we have succeeded when we actually see an improvement in Member States’ preparedness to tackle terrorism.”