In September, in the margins of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly, the IIJ held a highly successful online side event on Battlefield Evidence and Criminal Justice Approaches to Counter-Terrorism. The event, co-hosted with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Counterterrorism, brought together more than 100 criminal justice practitioners and senior policy officials from around the world to discuss and advance the use of battlefield evidence as an important tool in effective, rule of law–based counter-terrorism.
The online event featured presentations by senior policy officials from the U.S Department of State (Mr. Christopher Landberg, Acting Principal Deputy Coordinator for the Bureau of Counterterrorism, Department of State, United States of America), U.S. Department of Justice (Mr. Mark Lesko, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division, Department of Justice, United States of America), UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UN CTED) (Dr. David Scharia, Director and Chief of Branch, United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) (Mr. Masood Karimipour, Chief of the Terrorism Prevention Branch (TPB), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), and the European Union (Dr. Seyda Emek, Advisor to the Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, European Union).
The event’s dynamic discussions addressed recent advances in the collection, exploitation and international sharing of battlefield evidence, and its use in court for prosecution of individuals who have committed terrorist offences or other crimes. Senior prosecutors from Germany, Kosovo and Niger also shared their experiences with using battlefield evidence in civilian criminal justice proceedings, and identified further improvements needed to address pressing challenges.
For more information on this event, or the IIJ Battlefield Evidence Workstream, contact Programme Manager Winthrop Wells.