The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean actively participated and contributed to the 2020 OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Conference, organized by the Albanian OSCE Chairmanship, titled “Effective Partnerships against Terrorism and Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism”. The event was held in a mixed format (online/ Vienna) on 14 and 15 September 2020.
The conference brought together over 500 participants, including representatives of OSCE participating States, experts, practitioners, policymakers, parliamentarians, and representatives of civil society and the private sector. The conference sessions focused on international cooperation, building community networks against violent extremism, tackling the use of internet for terrorist purposes, public-private partnerships to restrict terrorist activity, and promoting effective approaches to prosecution, rehabilitation and re-integration of foreign fighters and their families including children.
PAM was represented by Sen. Alia Bouran, President Emeritus and President of the 1st Standing Committee on Political and Security related Cooperation, Hon. Pedro Roque, President Emeritus and President of The Pam 2nd Standing Committee On Economic, Social And Environmental Cooperation, and by Hon. Gennaro Migliore, Chair of the PAM Special Parliamentary Committee on Counterterrorism.
In her intervention as a panelist, Sen. Bouran underscored the importance of the whole-of-society approach to tackling violent extremism. She brought the effective experience of Jordan in handling the Syrian refugee crisis, by focusing on integration of youth, providing them with education and employment opportunities in order to avoid any social marginalization that may lead to radicalization. She also underscored that PAM serves as a platform of dialogue not only for parliamentarians, but for diverse groups of stakeholders including state security services, academics, religious leaders and civil society to come together for constructive dialogue on counterterrorism issues.
In his intervention, Hon. Migliore stated that PAM supports current efforts by the UN and interested States to repatriate, prosecute and rehabilitate foreign fighters who survived the military defeat of ISIL. However, he stressed that more needs to be done to identify the nationalities of the fighters, as well as that of women and children in camps, and ensure that countries assume responsibility for their nationals, and take action to repatriate them to face due process. He highlighted that PAM has achieved political consensus on this issue and was ready to support the efforts aimed at addressing the FTF situation through parliamentary diplomacy, including through a dedicated mission to Syria.
PAM highly values its cooperation with OSCE and its institutions on counterterrorism. In June 2020, PAM together with OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the UN Office on Counterterrorism, organized a joint videoconference on “Counterterrorism amidst the COVID19 Pandemic”, which served as an expanded platform for representatives of over 65 national parliaments to review the latest developments and strategies to keep counterterrorism as top priority on national agendas in times of COVID-19.