After Kenya in June, Morocco in early October and Indonesia in early November, the IIJ CT PHARE team concluded its fourth and last workshop for this year on Oversight and Accountability Mechanisms: Roles and Responsibilities in Countering Terrorism with countries from the Middle East.
From the 14 to the 16 November 2023 in Amman, the three-day capacity building activity brought together more than 30 high-level practitioners from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine and Tunisia. Participants came from the Arab Interior Ministers’ Council (AIMC), National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs),Ombudsmen, national Ministries of Interior and Ministries of Foreign Affairs, national Judiaciaries and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
We were also delighted to have experts from the European Union Advisory Mission in Iraq (EUAM), , the UN Security Council Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED), the Countering Terrrorism Section of the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCTC), as well as the Justice Center for Legal Aid (JCLA) in Jordan and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission of Ireland (GSOC – Irish Police Ombudsman).
This workshop enabled all the representatives and experts to brainstorm and share their experiences, to establish a network of practitioners from all over the MENA region, as well as to develop a set of recommendations on how to protect human rights in the context of counter-terrorism operaitons through national oversight and accountability mechansims. Among other things, some of the participans stressed the importance to focus and apply a more victim-centered approach when it comes to counter-terrorism, including physical and psychological harm.
Mr. Belal Al-Awamleh, Director of the Special Branch Public Security Directorate (PSD) of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and a Counter-Terrorism and Security Expert from the EU Delegation to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan kindly opened the event, together with the IIJ CT PHARE Project Lead, Paul Madden.
Based on the outcome of this activity and on the previous ones in Kenya, Morocco and Indonesia, a two-day transregional Experts Group Meeting will be organized in early 2024 to finalise a document for good practices related to the role and responsibilities of oversight and accountability mechanisms in counter-terrorism.
CT PHARE is generously funded by the EU through the service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) of the European Commission.