On 12 November 2020, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean addressed the UN Security Council Virtual Open Briefing of the Counter-Terrorism Committee on “The role of judges, prosecutors and defense counsel in bringing terrorists to justice, including the effective use of battlefield or military-collected evidence”.
The meeting gathered selected top experts on the topic, and the discussion focused on the impact of UN Security Council resolutions on criminal justice systems. They provided inputs on the use of electronic evidence, battlefield evidence, as well as conducting trials in the context of the ongoing pandemic.
Amb. Jean-Paul Laborde, PAM Roving Ambassador and Senior Counterterrorism Advisor, spoke on behalf of the Assembly. In his keynote intervention, Ambassador Laborde argued for a need to further bridge the gap between criminal justice practitioners and international actors, such as the UN, in order to better align criminal justice actions with global counterterrorism efforts and the UN strategy.
Ambassador Laborde stressed that national legislation must be harmonized in accordance with the Security Council resolutions as a necessary step in bridging this gap. Without such harmonization, there can be no meaningful convergence between national criminal justice practitioners and international actors, such as the UN. Thus, the role of PAM is instrumental in promoting the adoption and adaption of Security Council resolutions into national laws among its Member Parliaments, and in assisting them in effectively implementing the UN Global counterterrorism strategy.
PAM participation in this event comes in the context of the strategic partnership that PAM enjoys with the UN on counterterrorism issues, which aims at facilitating and promoting further the connection between the UN and parliamentary actions to address effectively the terrorist threat.
At present, PAM is concerned with a number of key challenges, including the threat of terrorist recidivism among released convicts, as exemplified by the recent Vienna attacks; the unresolved issue of ISIL FTFs survivors, and their families, held in makeshift detention camps in North-East Syria; and the resurgence of jihadist violence in the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa, among other worrying trends.
PAM remains engaged with its key partners on security issues, including the UN, OSCE and NATO, to identify additional best practices and lessons learned on how national and regional parliaments can effectively address these issues.