UN Resident Coordinator Remarks during CT TECH Capacity Building Assistance for the Philippines Final Workshop

Undersecretary Bernardo C. Florece Jr, Executive Director, Anti Terrorism Council – Programme Management Center,

Mr. Christoph Wagner, Head of Cooperation, European Union Delegation to the Philippines,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The General Assembly, in its eighth review of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in June 2023, requested UNOCT to support innovative measures and approaches to build the capacity of Member States for the challenges and opportunities that new technologies provide in preventing and countering terrorism. 

More than two years ago, UNOCT, INTERPOL and the European Union kicked off the CT TECH initiative to support Member States’ law enforcement capacities to counter the exploitation of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes and promote the responsible use of these technologies in the fight against terrorism. 

Since its launch, CT TECH has developed 7 knowledge products and associated guidance on countering the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes, promoted them in 5 regional events attended by 140 officials from 29 countries, and provided training on Open-Source Intelligence, facial recognition, and dark web investigations to all 35 CT TECH Partner States. 

The Republic of the Philippines is one of the five Partner States engaged in technical assistance on threat assessments, policy development and the strengthening of law enforcement capabilities. From 26 to 29 February this year, officials from the Philippines participated in a four-day workshop. During this event, they discussed best practices, techniques, and processes for threat assessments and policy development, integrating these into the Philippines’ existing practices. They also focused on enhancing law enforcement readiness to adopt new counter-terrorism technologies, identifying priority development areas, and ensuring that a human rights-based and gender-responsive approach was adopted. 

UNOCT captured these discussions in a report providing an overview of the Philippines law enforcement capabilities for new technologies. The report also suggested a roadmap for improvement. 

One of the objectives of today’s exercise is to discuss the report and agree on the way forward, so that the Government of the Philippines can make informed decisions on their priorities. 

CT TECH is an innovative initiative that supports Member States in formulating counter-terrorism approaches and developing counter-terrorism capabilities, recognizing the need to understand, anticipate and effectively respond to exploitation of new technologies by terrorists, while meaningfully safeguarding human rights. 

As we know, technology has been defined as a double-edged sword. It can incredibly improve the effectiveness of processes, results and products, but it can also become a serious danger for people and institutions if it’s misused or manipulated for spurious interests.

Technology should evolve in a well-defined institutional context, within the required standards, principles and norms, and nourished by best practices and lessons learned. 

Last year, the UN Special Rapporteur issued a Global Study on the impact of counter-terrorism measures on civil society and civic space. This report gathers important lessons learned from different countries and also provides valuable recommendations to make sure that efforts to counter terrorism don’t put at risk human rights.

To conclude, I wish to sincerely thank the European Union for generously funding this initiative through the European Commission’s Foreign Policy Instrument and for its overall support to the work of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre.

I would like to also express my sincere gratitude to the Anti-Terrorism Council – Programme Management Center for their trust and engagement in organizing this workshop.

I wish you a very productive exchange of ideas. 

Thank you.