The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) participated at the 27th Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) held on 14-18 May in Vienna. PAM was represented by Senior Advisor on Counterterrorism and Roving Ambassador Jean Paul Laborde. The conference focused on cybercrime and the role of new technologies in organized and transnational crimes and terrorism.
In his interventions, Ambassador Laborde highlighted the importance of international cooperation in criminal matters such as the fight against terrorism.
He stressed that in order to allow for more effective international cooperation on counter-terrorism, PAM parliamentarians have a key responsibility in order to ensure that national legislations be regularly reviewed to comply with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and other UN instruments, particularly to ensure interoperability through harmonized terminology and definitions. PAM, in partnership with UN relevant bodies, will organize a dedicated parliamentary hearing to address this issue next November in Turkey.
Ambassador Laborde praised the work of UNODC in providing technical assistance to states in order to increase their capacity to fight terrorism and cybercrime.
In this regard, UNODC and PAM have a long standing and ongoing cooperation to strengthen legal frameworks against the phenomenon of foreign fighters. Through this partnership, PAM and UNODC regularly organize conferences on counter-terrorism, events which bring together top UN and EU experts together with parliamentarians of the Euro-Mediterranean region to discuss and debate the necessary steps, from a legislative perspective, to combat the evolving threat of terrorism.