Experts from the African Centre for Studies and Research on Terrorism (CAERT), United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT), SADC Organ Early Warnings Unit and from the 15 SADC Member States are attending a Workshop on the Development of a Regional Counter-Terrorism Strategy for Southern Africa from June 10-12, 2015 in Gaborone, Botswana.
The main objective of the Workshop is to deal with issues falling under the scope of Pillar III* of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. Participants will consider measures to build States’ capacity to prevent and combat terrorism and will work on finalising the text of the draft strategy as well as on developing a Plan of Action to implement it. Subsequently, the finalized draft strategy will be presented to SADC Member State governments for adoption.
Prior to this workshop, which is the last in a series of three, two workshops were held in November 2014 in Harare Zimbabwe and in March 2015 in Livingstone, Zambia respectively.
The first one was to assess the threat of terrorism and violent extremism to SADC Region and to prepare the first part of the draft regional counter terrorism strategy while the second focused on pillar IV* of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Strategy. Delegates then developed a series of concrete proposals to be incorporated into the draft strategy prepared by SADC.
*Pillar III foresees measures to build States’ capacity to prevent and combat terrorism and to strengthen the role of the United Nations system in this regard.
*Pillar IV Highlights measures to ensure respect for Human Rights for all and the rule of law as the fundamental basis of the fight against terrorism, which it also identifies as essential to all components of the Strategy
Photo: From Left to Right
Mr. Habib Kambanga, Head, Regional Early Warning Centre, SADC Secretariat, Representative of the Government of Namibia, SADC Troika, Minister for Presidential affairs and Public Administration of Botswana, Mr E. Molale, Mr. Helgard Müller, Representative of the Government of South Africa, SADC Organ Chair, Mr. Ulrik Ahnfeldt-Mollerup, Programme Officer, UNCCT, Ambassador Francisco Madeira, African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism (CAERT), Representative of the Government of Lesotho, SADC Troika
