SECURITY COUNCIL ADOPTS RESOLUTION EXTENDING THE

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 001151 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER UNSC PREL UNGA SUBJECT: SECURITY COUNCIL ADOPTS RESOLUTION EXTENDING THE INITIAL PERIOD OF THE COUNTER-TERRORISM COMMITTEE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORATE UNTIL 31 MARCH 2008 ¶1. The Security Council, on December 10, unanimously adopted resolution 1787 (text below). The following countries co-sponsored the resolution: Belgium, Congo, France, Italy, Panama, Russia, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The resolution extends the initial period of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) from 31 December 2007, under resolution 1535 (2004),to 31 March ¶2008. The resolution further requests the Executive Director of CTED to recommend, within sixty days, such changes as he deems appropriate to the organizational plan and to submit them to the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) for its consideration and endorsement prior to 31 March 2008. ¶2. Following adoption of the resolution, Panama made a brief statement to justify the extension of CTED's mandate based on the recent appointment of Mike Smith (Australia) as Executive Director. Qatar also made a statement to explain that it voted in favor of the resolution even though all of its views were not reflected in the text. Specifically, Qatar said that the Council has been dealing with terrorism without a clear definition of the term, and that there has been a failure to address root causes of the phenomenon. The Qatari representative went on to question the appropriateness of the CTC and the CTED, and suggested that the Working Group on the implementation of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy was the most suitable body to address terrorism-related issues. He said that in addition to suffering from a lack of transparency, the CTC has not done enough to implement resolution 1624 (2005),which focuses on preventing incitement to terrorism and distortion of religious or cultural symbols. ¶3. Text of resolution: BEGIN TEXT: The Security Council, Recalling resolution 1373 (2001) of 28 September 2001, resolution 1456 (2003) of 20 January 2003, resolution 1535 (2004) of 26 March 2004, resolution 1624 (2005) of 14 September 2005, as well as its other resolutions concerning threats to international peace and security caused by terrorism, Reaffirming that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to peace and security, Welcoming the adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, A/60/288, and the creation of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force to ensure overall coordination and coherence in the counter-terrorism efforts of the United Nations, Reminding States that they must ensure that any measures taken to combat terrorism comply with all their obligations under international law, and should adopt such measures in accordance with international law, in particular, international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law, Commending Member States for their cooperation with the Counter-Terrorism Committee and calling upon all of them to continue to cooperate fully with the Committee, ¶1. Decides to extend the initial period referred to in paragraph 2 of resolution 1535 (2004) until 31 March 2008; ¶2. Requests the Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, within 60 days of the adoption of this resolution and in consultation with Council Members, to recommend such changes as he deems appropriate to the organizational plan referred to in paragraph 4 of resolution 1535 (2004),and to submit them to the Counter-Terrorism Committee for its consideration and endorsement prior to the expiration of the period referred to in paragraph 1 of this resolution; ¶3. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter. END TEXT. Khalilzad