Credit:  UN Photo/Mark Garten /  United Nations Security Council open debate on the linkage between international terrorism and organized crime, at the UN headquarters in New York, July 9, 2019

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC TIMES

UNITED NATIONS   –  The UN Security Council held an open debate Tuesday on the connection between organized crime and  terrorism. Last year, the President of the UN Security Council, speaking on behalf of the Council, expressed concern about the close connection between international terrorism and transnational organized crime. The Security Council strongly urged member states and international organizations to enhance cooperation and strategies to prevent terrorists from benefiting from transnational  organized crime, and to build the capacity to secure their  borders  against and prosecute such terrorists and criminals working within them.

 Yuri Fedetov, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), briefed the Security Council, stating that criminals and terrorists shared a need to operate in the shadows, exploiting gaps in criminal justice responses in and between countries and regions. Human trafficking for sexual exploitation, child soldiers and forced labour can be used not only to generate revenue but to strike fear and recruit new fighters, he told Council members.  Fedetov explained that Dae’sh for example, had profited immensely from the illegal trade in oil, trafficking in cultural property they ransacked from places such as Palmyra in Syria, and Mosul in Iraq, and kidnapping for ransom.  “We have also seen piracy and organized crime flourish on the high seas, including outside the justification of any single State and beyond the capacities of many countries to control,” he said. He also noted that the Al-Shabaab extremists in Somalia, supported piracy and finance some of their operations from trade in Somali charcoal through the Gulf of Oman, while the veteran Al-Qaida group, resupplies its forces around the Arabian Peninsula by sea. 

PERU, Which Is Security Council President This Month, Organized the Debate

Credit:  Gary Raynaldo / Ambassador Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, (Center) Permanent Representative of Peru to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of July 2019 speaks at press conference at UN headquarters July 1, 2019 with staff members. 

PERU has initiated a Draft Resolution, that will be tabled for a vote later this month. 

“As you know, in the past Peru has experienced and suffered terrorism and now at the Council, we are chairing the counter-terrorism committee and the nexus between terrorism and organized crime is a known problem. It appears in different forms in different regions. In Latin America it is mostly related to drugs issues. In our region, it is more with human trafficking, arms trafficking. We are working also on a Resolution highlighting this problem and how we should address it.”

Ambassador Gustavo Meza-Cuadra ,  Permanent Representative of Peru to the UN stated at a press conference last week.

Fedetov  called for more resources to be channelled towards technical assistance to strengthen specialized expertise and capacities, which includes training for law enforcement, coast guards, border and airport officials, prosecutors, judges, prison officers and other relevant officials.

Meanwhile,  Michèle Coninsx, Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, outlined the Security Council’s various activities to combat the financing of terrorism, noting that the territorial losses sustained by Da’esh, which just a few years ago controlled large swathes of Syria and Iraq, had made it imperative for them to access funds through a wide range of criminal activities including drug trafficking, weapons sales, kidnapping and extortion.