Steven Hill’s Remarks: First Regional Workshop on Human Rights-Compliant Approaches to Countering the Financing of Terrorism and Risk-Based Implementation of FATF Rec. 8 First Regional Workshop
19-21 November 2024
WELCOMING REMARKS
Welcome, distinguished participants of the workshop on Human Rights-Compliant Approaches to Countering the Financing of Terrorism and Risk-Based Implementation of FATF Recommendation 8 regarding Non-Profit Organisations – the first one in the series of workshops that the IIJ is organizing within the framework of the multi-year Regional Project on Building Capacity and Improving Cooperation Mechanisms on Countering the Financing of Terrorism in Southeast Asia.
Special thanks to the Government of Canada for its long-time support of the IIJ and for the generous funding for the project making it possible to organise this workshop. Also, our sincere gratitude to the authorities of the Philippines for hosting us in your beautiful country.
Over the next three days you will be working with participants from seven jurisdictions: Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, and presenters from international organisations supporting IIJ’s work: United Nations Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and International Committee of the Red Cross.
We are also grateful to the Secretariat of the Asia / Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) who helped us a lot with the preparations and who endorsed our work by accepting the IIJ to be observer to the APG as of September this year – they, unfortunately, could not participate, but they wish you a successful event.
The International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law, or the IIJ, is dedicated to advancing the rule of law, justice, security, and human rights in the context of countering terrorism and terrorist financing. We focus on supporting criminal justice practitioners who tackle the complexities of transnational terrorism. Terrorism knows no borders – its recruitment, funding, and attacks cross national lines, which makes strong international cooperation essential.
At present, most of the IIJ’s activities are being implemented in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, regions where terrorism remains a persistent threat. We foresee that our work will increasingly extend to Central Asia, allowing us to address emerging challenges and work closely with the region’s criminal justice communities.
Countering the financing of terrorism, or CFT, is a relatively new area for the IIJ, but we already implemented successful programmes in West Africa and the MENA region. The topic of upholding human rights while implementing CFT measures is a cross-cutting theme for all our programmes. International standard dictate that the state authorities implement CFT measures in compliance with the states’ obligations under international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international refugee law. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) calls for countries to apply focused and proportionate CFT measures, in line with the risk-based approach, to protect entities identified as vulnerable to terrorism financing abuse – including the non-profit organisations.
We all recognize that the important work of NPOs to assist people in difficult living conditions and emergencies is vital both for the individual countries in which NPOs operate and for the international community, which channels aid to beneficiaries through NPOs that deliver aid on the ground.
However, terrorists and terrorist organisations may exploit some NPOs to raise and move funds, provide logistical support, encourage terrorist recruitment, or otherwise support terrorist organizations and operations. This misuse not only facilitates terrorist activity, but also undermines donor confidence and jeopardizes the very integrity of NPOs. Therefore, protecting the non-profit sector from terrorist abuse is both a critical component of the global fight against terrorism and a necessary step to preserve the integrity of the NPO sector and donor community.
Against this background, the workshop will discuss FATF latest guidance on the implementation of the revised Recommendation 8. You will discuss good practices and challenges in assessing the NPOs’ risks of abuse for terrorist financing and suggesting focused, proportionate and risk-based measures to mitigate these risks – ones that that are not overly burdensome or restrictive for NPOs.
The IIJ will make every effort to promote public-private dialogue and interagency collaboration, and to support efforts to put in place internal security mechanisms and actions necessary to preserve the humanitarian goals and fundraising ability of NPOs.
In closing, the IIJ is committed to supporting the countries of Southeast Asia in their CFT work. Our regional project will run for two years, and my colleagues will speak in more detail later about our completed and upcoming activities across the different pillars of this project.
We look forward to working with you all and wish you a productive workshop.
Thank you.