In News:

• Ambassadors of all countries in the U.N. Security Council attended a memorial for victims of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.
• This memorial was a part of a special session of the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) at the Taj Mumbai hotel, one of the sites of the attacks in 2008.

What’s in Today’s Article:

• Counter-Terrorism Committee - About, focus areas
• News Summary

UN Security Council - Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC)

• In the aftermath of the 11 September attacks against the United States in 2001, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1373 (2001).
• This resolution, for the first time, established a dedicated Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) of the Council.
• The CTC is assisted by an Executive Directorate (CTED), which carries out its policy decisions and conducts expert assessments of the 193 United Nations Member States.

Focus Areas

• The Counter-Terrorism Committee has a global mandate and focuses on specific thematic areas, which are:
  • Counter-terrorism strategies
  • Countering the financing of terrorism
  • Border security and arms trafficking
  • Law enforcement
  • Legal issues
  • Human Rights
  • Integrating gender into counter-terrorism
  • Countering violent extremism and terrorist narratives
  • Information and Communications Technologies
  • Foreign Terrorist Fighters

News Summary

• India hosted a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council’s Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC).
• This was the first such meeting of the UNSC-CTC in India since its establishment in 2001.
  • The Permanent Representative of India to the UN serves as the Chair of the CTC for 2022.

Key highlights

• Theme
  • The meeting held discussion on the overarching theme of Countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes.
  • It also discussed terror-financing through crypto-currency and use of drones in the new-age terrorism.
• Wreath-laying ceremony at the 26/11 Memorial at the Taj hotel
• Address made by EAM S Jaishankar
  • EAM S Jaishankar specified 5 points before the CTC to block financial resources that allow terrorism to thrive.
  • One of which was to ensure effective and transparent functioning of the UNSC sanctions regime and make sure they are not rendered ineffective for political reasons.
    • This is important in the context of China’s repeated forestalling of UN sanctions on Pakistan based terrorists.
  • 
  • EAM recalled how it wasn’t just an attack on Mumbai, but an attack on the international community as people of specific nationalities were identified before being murdered.
  • In this context, he said that the commitment of each and every member state of the UN to combat terrorism stood publicly challenged.
• Presentation highlighting Pakistan’s links with the 26/11 attacks was made
  • Indian authorities played the recording of one of these terrorists, Sajid Mir, directing the 26/11 perpetrators.
    • China blocked a proposal for a UN ban on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Mir last month.
• The issue of listing planners of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack as global terrorists was raised
  • External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised this issue.
    • India has been urging the UNSC to reflect on the signals being sent each time a move to list a terrorist is blocked.
    • China has been blocking US and India’s moves on the listing of Pakistan-based terrorists – Sajid Mir, Abdul Rauf Azhar, Abdul Rehman Makki being the more recent cases.
  • However, representative from China asked the countries to “avoid mutual accusations and politicising technical issues.