THE PLENARY SESSION
The Plenary Session held five
meetings during which the heads of delegation delivered their addresses to
the conference and carefully examined the recommendations submitted in the
workshops. The heads of delegations' addresses in the fourth session held on
Sunday 26/12/1425H included the following:
The Head of the Delegation of Denmark expressed his country's satisfaction
and appreciation of the Kingdom's initiative in convening this conference.
He pointed to the unpredictable nature of the terrorist threat and the
importance of blocking their access to nuclear arms.
The Head of the Delegation of Tunisia welcomed the Kingdom's initiative in
holding this conference and expressed his country's support for the proposal
submitted by HRH the Crown Prince to establish an international centre for
countering terrorism. Tunisia has been successful, he said, in overcoming
extremist groups who work under the guise of religion by adopting a multiple
strategy. In its efforts to fight terrorism, it accorded particular
attention to illegal immigration and the counterfeiting of travel documents
and visas. Also it ratified the 12 agreements as well as the other regional
agreements.
The Head of the Delegation of Argentina expressed his appreciation of
the Kingdom's call to convene this conference and emphasized that counter
terrorism efforts, while requiring international solidarity within the
framework of the United Nations, should not preclude respect for human
rights. There was no justification, he said, for killing civilians under
occupation. He also referred to the links existing between terror and
organized crime as well as to his country's commitment to fighting terror
and its willingness to cooperate in every effort made on this score.
The Head of the Afghan delegation expressed the appreciation of his country
for the Kingdom's initiative to convene this conference and pointed out that
Afghanistan is the biggest victim of terrorism in the world especially the
terrorism of the Al-Qaeda organization and that it has carried out
some military operations against the terrorist groups in Afghanistan under
the international coalition against terrorism.
The Kenyan Head of Delegation indicated that the convening of this
conference underscores the anxiousness and wisdom of the government of Saudi
Arabia. It also reflects its commitment to fighting terrorism to ensure
world peace and security. He also pointed out that Kenya has suffered from
terrorist acts, that it is fully committed to all the international efforts
to fight terrorism and that it has ratified all the international
conventions in this respect.
The French Head of Delegation expressed his country's appreciation for the
Kingdom's convening of this conference and stressed that France has for many
years faced terrorism and reiterated his country's resolve to combat
terrorism. He also indicated that his country is seriously looking into the
preventive aspects for fighting terrorism; something which is dependant upon
information in the first place. He also stressed the need to devote utmost
attention to the issue of illegal immigration and the importance of the role
of religious leaders, Muslims and others, in spreading the spirits of
concord, approchement and tolerance vis-à-vis other faiths in addition to
taking into consideration the political and social aspects likely to help
integrate all the groups of the people into one single set. Finally, he
stressed France's refusal to associate religion with extremism.
The Head of the Kingdom of Bahrain's delegation stated the support of his
country for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait with respect to the
measures that have been taken to fight terrorist acts as well as its backing
of the initiative of HRH the Crown Prince to establish an international
centre to fight terrorism. He also underlined the importance of cooperation
and information- sharing including the setting up of a comprehensive data
base to be made available to all countries and establish regional centres to
promote bilateral cooperation.
Ethiopia's Head of Delegation pointed out in his address that his country
has been the target of many terrorist acts and that his country is quite
willing and ready to cooperate with international efforts to fight
terrorism.
The Head of the Brazilian Delegation stressed the commitment of his country
to combat terrorism and the importance of establishing a global strategy to
coordinate international efforts against terrorism. He further stressed the
respect of international legality indicating that Brazil does not see any
direct link between terrorism and poverty and that terrorism is linked to no
religion, race or region. He called for precaution as to the link between
terrorism and organized crime as the common point between the two is not
confirmed in all cases.
In conclusion, the chairman of the
session took the floor and stressed the need for the delegates to focus on
the proposals made by the delegates over the last two days in order to reach
practical results likely to foster international cooperation in the field of
counter-terrorism and to save the world from the dangerous evils thereof,
pointing out that there is obvious consensus on the fact that terrorism is a
trans-border phenomenon and has nothing to do with any religion, race or
nationality. The addresses made by the majority of delegates stressed the
need to tackle the danger of terrorism in a global way including the fight
against fundamentalist ideas that encourage terrorism, through the
dissemination of tolerance and dialogue values amongst civilizations,
cultures and peoples. This also includes the fight against the growing
relations between terrorism, money laundering, weapon business, drugs and
the export of organized criminal activities. There was also a consensus as
to the need to consolidate the role of the United Nations and to back
international legality in combating terrorism. The majority of remarks
stressed the major importance of promoting the ways for exchanging
information and experience among the specialized organs in fighting
terrorism. In this regard, the absolute majority of participants supported
the initiative of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of creating an
international counter-terrorism organ which is entrusted with coordination
among the specialized national agencies and securing the highest levels of
cooperation and exchange of experience and information amongst them.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Workshop I
Workshop I which considered the theme: "Roots of terrorism"
concluded that identifying the root causes which provide suitable
environment for the growth of terrorism is very difficult task. It
emphasized that terrorism cannot be linked to a particular religion or race,
nationality or geographic region. It particularly cautioned against any
attempt to link terrorism with any religion. The workshop presented
proposals on the appropriate mechanisms to deal. with reasons fueling hatred
or incitement to violence, which include abject poverty, unjust social
system, financial and administrative corruption, political causes (foreign
occupation), religious extremism, systematic violation of human rights,
discrimination, economic marginalization and cultural denial. The workshop
took the following dimensions:
1. Comprehensive, effective, unified and organized cooperation through the
pioneering role of the United Nations to condemn and challenge terrorism and
extremism.
2. Cooperation of States and
agencies of the United Nations to enact counter terrorism laws.
3. Addressing the conditions and
causes fuelling violence, extremism and working to develop and implement
special programs to encourage dialogue among cultures and religions.
Workshop II
Workshop II which discussed the
theme: "Relation between terrorism and money laundering, arms trade and
drug trafficking" completed its work which dealt with the following
issues:
1. International regional and
bilateral cooperation to identify and dismantle the financial risk of
terrorism and organized crime and to prevent the spread of weapons and drugs
trafficking.
2. International financial criteria
on combating money laundering and United Nations conventions and Security
Council resolutions relevant to the workshop's concern.
3. Unified international criteria
to ensure that non-profit charitable and humanitarian organizations regulate
their work and to prevent them from being used for illegitimate activities.
4. National and bilateral
cooperation and coordination between specialized agencies on combating
terrorism, money laundering, and drugs trafficking and support for
information and expertise exchange.
Workshop III
Workshop III which discussed the
theme: "Counter terrorism experiences of different countries"
completed its work which took the following dimensions:
1. Coordination and exchange of
information and expertise among counter-terrorism agencies throughout the
world.
2. Transfer of technology used by
advanced countries in counter terrorism to countries lacking the technology.
3. Training and exchange of
equipment and methods for dealing with upcoming terrorist
organizations.
Workshop IV
Workshop IV on the theme:
"Terrorist organizations and formations" completed its work which
included appropriate mechanisms for preventing the growth or expansion of
terrorist organizations and the means of international cooperation in that
regard. The workshop took the following dimensions:
1. Terrorist organizations,
training camps, recruitment, training and incitement of terrorists.
2. The use by terrorists of other
countries, places and safe havens and abuse of human rights activities and
political asylum laws.
3. Differentiation between
legitimate religious, political, charitable and educational activities and
the provision of training and cover for terrorists, ensuring that religious,
educational facilities or civil charitable organizations are not abused.
4. Role of parents, teachers,
educational and political activities.
5. Information exchange in the area
of intelligence, policing, immigration and counter-terrorism.
6. International criteria to track
terrorists, extremists and their collective activities.
Source: Counter Terrorism International
Conference Web Site
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