Doha, Qatar – 30 March 2022. PAM President, Hon. Gennaro Migliore, contributed to the high-level parliamentary conference “Understanding the terrorist threat in Africa: new challenges and necessary measures”, organized by the United Nations Office on Counter-Terrorism and the African Parliamentary Union in Doha.
President Migliore moderated the legislative session dedicated to “Necessary measures to mitigate, prevent and address the current and emerging threats.” Among the panelists, there were: Hon. Reinhold Lopatka, Vice-President and Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Countering Terrorism of the OSCE PA, H.E. Mr. Mohamed Alyammahi, Vice-President of the Arab Parliament, and Hon. Mahamadou Idder of the G5 Sahel Interparliamentary Committee.
In his remarks, PAM President said that “PAM and the African Parliamentary Union have a lot of work in common and enjoy a fruitful partnership since long time. All North African countries are founding and active Members of PAM. Meanwhile, the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa are our closest neighbors.”
He restated PAM firm engagement to work close with the African neighbors to face the ongoing security crisis and political instability in the region, and added that “PAM is monitoring in particular the situation in the Sahel region. The Sahel is becoming the epicenter of global terrorism.”
In September 2021, PAM co-sponsored the “Call of the Sahel” initiative to implement a holistic approach to address the root causes of instability in the region. […] Now that the political and security situation in the Sahel has changed drastically, we need to review the entire program and be extreme cautious in dealing with national military actors, who are neither legitimized nor recognized by the international community. This requires joining our efforts with the UN Representative for the region.”
In the same session intervened virtually also Hon. Sandrine Mörch, PAM Vice-President and President of the 3rd Standing Committee. In her speech, she highlighted the link between terrorism and climate change, which has been officially recognized by the United Nations. She said “in this regard, there is the need to integrate climate-related security risks as central elements of comprehensive UN conflict prevention strategies, in order to help reduce the risk of relapse into conflict.”
Hon. Mörch concluded stating that “a fundamental measure to prevent terrorism and violent extremism the promotion of a culture of peace and inter-religious dialogue, encouraged by parliamentarians and local leaders in their respective countries.”
All the participants agreed on the importance of strengthening the engagement of national and international parliaments to discuss existing and emerging terrorist threats on the African continent and identify measures to mitigate and respond to these threats through technical assistance and capacity building, including the development or revision of national strategies and action plans to counter terrorism and prevent violent extremism.
Here is the link to the website of the African Parliamentary Union:
http://www.apunion.org/article-detail/1/15/208/conference-parlementaire-de-haut-niveau-sur-la-menace-terroriste-en-afrique