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From thebahamasweekly.com - Bahamas Information Services Updates
WASHINGTON, DC -- National Security Minister the Hon OAT “Tommy” Turnquest, who chaired the 10th regular session of the Inter-American Committee against Terrorism (CICTE), said at the end of the three-day conclave that discussions over the course the session underscored the validity and legitimacy to the Bahamas-proposed theme “Public/Private Partnerships In The Fight Against Terrorism”.
Mr Turnquest, whose work as
Chair of the meeting was supported by The Bahamas’ National Point
of Contact for the CICTE Peter Deveaux-Isaacs and Second Secretary
Charice
Rolle, said he had been honoured and privileged to hold the chair.
On the aptness of the theme,
he said, “It was our intention during these deliberations to assemble
a group of presenters with technical competence and solid backgrounds
in the area of the public/private partnerships to begin to create a
framework for us to explore this very important concept in our
comprehensive
and multidimensional response to terrorism.”
“All of the presenters provided
practical and substantive information on the establishment of
public/private
partnerships,” he said.
At the end of the three-day
session, the CICTE adopted both the draft work plan for the next year
and the draft declaration prepared by The Bahamas. The declaration will
serve as a guide for the work of the committee over the coming year.
“The Declaration that we
have approved,” the Minister said of the document, “is a statement
of our commitment to consider public/private partnerships in preventing,
combating and eliminating terrorism including in critical
infrastructure,
port, maritime and civil aviation security, security in major events
and crisis management.”
In that declaration, CICTE
Member states reaffirmed that terrorism has no justification and
constitutes
a grave threat to the lives, well-being and fundamental freedoms of
all people.
While stressing that preventing
and countering terrorism, and managing the consequences of terrorist
acts, is the responsibility of the state, the document stated that the
active involvement of private sector and civil society can complement
ongoing governmental counterterrorism activities because of their
economic
resources, efficiencies reflected in fast and flexible responses to
market and security conditions, innovative capacities and information
networks.
The Declaration says that
“terrorism
is a scourge without boundaries and states therefore resolve to
reinforce
existing national and international measures and strategies to examine,
as appropriate, new multilateral cooperation strategies designed to
strengthen the fight against terrorism.”
States also declared their commitment to “identify and to counter emerging terrorist threats, and likewise to develop and/or adopt national plans and cooperative programs, including mechanisms to exchange information and best practices to prevent, combat and eliminate such threats.” The Declaration also laid out a framework for cooperation between CICTE Member states in areas like exploring the role civil society could play in a comprehensive and multidimensional response to terrorism, and a commitment to establishing mechanisms to facilitate both the exchange of information and the sharing of existing best practices and the development of further best practices between stakeholders in countering terrorism.
Over the course of three days,
CICTE Member states heard presentations by technical experts like
Ambassador
Ertuğrul Apakan, the Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United
Nations and Ambassador Apakan who spoke about the work of the UN
Security
Council Counter-Terrorism Committee.
Presenters discussed
Public/Private
Partnerships in the protection of critical infrastructure, security
for major events, and maritime security.
The Chair of the UN
Counter-Terrorism
Implementation Task Force, Jean-Paul Laborde, closed the conference.
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