28-29 October 2022, Mumbai and New Delhi, India – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) contributed to the Special Meeting of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee on “Countering the Use of New and Emerging Technologies for Terrorist Purposes”. On this occasion, PAM Special Representative for Women and Children in Armed Conflicts, Hon. Dherar Belhoul (UAE) Al Falasi, and PAM President Emeritus, Hon. Gennaro Migliore, were present.
On 28 October, the Opening Session of the meeting was organized at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, in Mumbai, in memory of the 31 victims of a series of coordinated terroristic attacks, which took place there in November 2008.
Following the tribute ceremony, participants, representing IOs, NGOs, private and public sector, debated on how useful technology is being abused to spread terror. They presented their experiences, and were briefed by UN experts.
On 29 October, in New Delhi, discussions concentrated, inter alia, on Countering terrorist exploitation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), countering terrorism financing, and the threats posed by terrorist use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
In the afternoon, Hon. Al Falasi and Hon. Migliore highlighted PAM efforts in supporting and contributing to the UN Global Counterterrorism Strategy, and promoting cooperation to establish effective security environment.
Hon. Al Falasi provided an overview on how terrorists exploit the Internet to finance their illegal operations, for instance through the trafficking of human organs. On his side, Hon. Migliore focused on the threats that the use of technologies by terrorist groups in the Sahel posed for the PAM regions.
The meeting ended with the adoption of a non-binding document, known as “The Delhi Declaration on countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes”. The Declaration lays out the foundation for the way ahead, underlying the importance of human rights, public-private partnership, civil society engagement, to effectively address this challenge.//