General Assembly General Assembly

Permanent Mission of India
New York
 

 
 

Statement by Ambassador Asoke K. Mukerji, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations at the meeting of the Advisory Board of UN Counter-Terrorism Center, New York (23rd April 2014)
 

 
 

Mr. Chairman,
 

  At the outset, let me thank the USG Political Affairs and Executive Director of UNCCT Jeffery Feltman and Director Jehangir Khan for the briefing. I have the following comments to make:
 

  1. In the UNCCT report covering the period 15 November 2013 15 February 2014, there has been an issue raised by UNCCT regarding delays on account of various levels of consultative process in establishing the legal context for projects being implemented by CTITF. I would like to suggest that CTITF needs to come up with a solution to coordinate the consultative process and ensure timely implementation of projects. I would think that UNCCT office in New York can coordinate a meeting in this regard with relevant stakeholders.
  2. Another concern expressed by UNCCT relates to the pace of process of regional Counter-Terrorism strategy for Southern Africa. The consultative process must be expedited by having a coordinating meeting of focal points of the various countries in southern Africa so that set objectives are achieved as per schedule. The CT experts in the respective UN Missions of these Southern African countries could meet under the auspices of UNCCT in New York to resolve this issue.
  3. The third concern that has been expressed by UNCCT in the report pertains to the misalignment of the UNCCT programme year and the UN budget year which is becoming an impediment to the effective budgeting. This must be resolved at the earliest by setting timelines of UNCCT projects so that it is in harmony with the UN budget year. We can consider the 18 months timeframe proposed by the Director at his briefing today.
  4. I would like to reiterate my earlier suggestion that a discussion paper should be made for the Advisory Board on how to best utilize the very generous US $ 100 million grant from Saudi Arabia for the UNCCT.
  5. I would like to commend the UNCCT on the progress made in various projects enumerated in the report and urge them to put more efforts in areas especially related to capacity building in CT.
  6. I would like to urge that focus of UNCCT Secretariat should continue to be in CT-related work in African region. I note with satisfaction that implementation of National Counter-Terrorism logistics in Nigeria has been completed.
  7. I would also propose that we should have a mechanism whereby there is consideration of projects by the Advisory board rather than being presented as a fait accompli. The Advisory board should be consulted before finalization of projects.
  8. As stated earlier, the proposed matrix of database developed by the UNCCT will be useful and could be shared with the member states, if it is ready.
  9. Finally, I would like to urge UNCCT to have a balanced implementation of four pillars of UN Counter-Terrorism strategy keeping in mind the overall objective of zero tolerance of terrorism endorsed by the United Nations. There is no justification for terrorism, which has to be countered, prosecuted and penalized.

 

I thank you, Mr. Chairman.