From 08 to 09 October 2025, the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ) represented by the EU-funded Counter-Terrorism Platform for Human Rights Engagement (CT PHARE) attended the Twenty-Eighth Arab Conference of Counter-Terrorism Officials, held at the Arab Interior Ministers Council (AIMC) General Secretariat Headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia.
The conference discussed several important topics, including developments in the field of terrorism and ways to confront them, and the types and forms of financing terrorism and ways to confront it. In this regard, it called on Member States to take the necessary measures to address developments in the field of terrorism, especially the phenomenon of lone wolves, the use of drones to commit terrorist acts, the recruitment of children, and the use of social media and artificial intelligence for this purpose. The conference stressed the importance of enhancing the exchange of information and intensifying cooperation between Arab countries, collectively and bilaterally, to confront developments in the field of terrorism and prevent the occurrence of terrorist operations.
The conference reviewed the experiences of Member States in confronting terrorist acts and extremism leading to terrorism, as well as the outcomes of regional and international counter-terrorism meetings. It called on member states to benefit from these experiences and emphasized the importance of member states' participation in all regional and international meetings concerned with combating extremism and terrorism.
The Twenty-Eighth Arab Conference of Counter-Terrorism Officials concluded its work with the issuance of several important recommendations aimed at strengthening Arab security cooperation and coordination in combating terrorism and mitigating its repercussions in the Arab region.
During the conference, Mr. Paul Madden, IIJ CT PHARE Project Lead briefed the AIMC Member States on the progress of its work on human rights engagement across all four project streams: (a) Oversight and accountability mechanisms in countering terrorism; (b) Protection of human rights in the context of militarized counter-terrorism responses; (c) Pre-trial detention and the right to a fair trial; and (d) Support to the Government of Iraq in reviewing its National Counter-Terrorism Strategy 2026–2030.
Additionally, CT PHARE shared with AIMC Member States, the substantive IIJ contributions to the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), in partnership with the Government of Malta joint initiative on the development of The Valletta Principles on Comprehensive and Integrated Counter-Terrorism Strategies which stress clarity and coordination through a whole-of-government and a whole-of-society approach are critical for turning counter-terrorism commitments into workable reforms. The IIJ CT PHARE referenced the widely use of the Valletta Principles as one of the guiding documents on the support to the Government of Iraq in reviewing its National Counter-Terrorism Strategy 2026–2030.
CT PHARE also emphasised the importance of aligning States’ counter-terrorism policies, legislation, and judicial practices with internationally recognised human rights standards, reinforcing its strategic objective to enhance accountability, compliance, and the rule of law in regional counter-terrorism efforts.
In February 2025, the IIJ signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the AIMC and outlined that the IIJ stands ready to support Member States in their counter-terrorism initiatives and at the regional level through implementation of the Arab Counter-terrorism Strategy 2022.