Two UN Security Council Committees and the Financial Action Task Force hold special meeting on depriving terrorist groups from accessing, raising, and moving funds - United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee

(NEW YORK) Despite efforts by the international community to deprive terrorists and terrorist groups of financial resources and prevent them from accessing the international financial system, terrorist groups continue to find ways to raise and move funds. Of particular concern is the urgent need to improve implementation of existing mechanisms for identifying and disrupting terrorist financing to prevent returning foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs), dormant terrorist cells, and other terrorist support networks from accessing funds and assets.

“Combatting terrorism financing continues to be a priority for the international community, as notably demonstrated by last December’s historic Security Council meeting of Finance Ministers. In adopting its resolution 2253, the Council reaffirmed its determination to address the threat posed to international peace and security by Al-Qaida, ISIL, and their affiliates,” Ambassador Amr Aboulatta, Chairman of the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) said in his opening remarks of the joint special meeting organized and chaired by the Security Council 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee and the CTC , in cooperation with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and held in New York on 12-13 December 2016.

The purpose of the special meeting – Depriving terrorist groups from accessing, raising, and moving funds: Practices and lessons learned.” – was to build on the outcomes of the Security Council meeting of December 2015, as well as on a similar joint meeting held in April 2016, and to examine national practices and regional initiatives to better implement relevant counter-terrorist financing instruments, including the related resolutions of the Council. It also enabled the two committees, Member States, and relevant international and regional organizations to continue their discussions of terrorism-financing trends and to share practices and effective tools to deprive terrorists of financial resources.

Tuesday, 13 December 2016