UN: Morocco Co-Chairs High-Level Meeting on Activity of UNOCT Program Offices

The meeting, held as part of the Third Counter-Terrorism Week organized by the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office (UNOCT) from June 19 to 23, enabled the directors of these offices to present the actions undertaken since the opening of these organs dedicated to better coordination in the fight against terrorism. It also allowed to highlight initiatives aimed at strengthening the work of these Program offices in coordination with the host countries.

Speaking to the audience, the Director of Global Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Living Abroad, Ismail Chekkori, stressed the fruitful collaboration between Morocco and the UNOCT which enabled the launch several initiatives including the « Marrakesh Platform for African Heads of Security and Counter-Terrorism Agencies ».

He noted that this platform serves as an annual forum to assess achievements, priorities, needs and actions, while promoting inter-agency coordination and the exchange of best practices and experiences, deeming it a salient example of the partnership between Morocco and the UNOCT based on trust and credibility.

Chekkori also highlighted the contribution of national security agencies which remain open to collaboration with reliable partners in order to make tangible efforts with concrete results.

In turn, Suzana Visnjic, representing the Office of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism and Training Program in Africa, praised the « unique » partnership between Morocco and the UN Office based in Rabat, as well as the expertise and technical support that the Moroccan government and national security agencies provide to the work of the Office and to the implementation of its training programs.

Noting that the Office had achieved concrete results after two years of existence, the speaker referred to the example of the launch of the “Marrakesh Platform” launched last year in collaboration with Morocco, emphasizing that this structure is a permanent forum that brings together more than 38 heads of security agencies from African Member States and partner countries to discuss challenges and lessons learned in the fight against terrorism, while agreeing on capacity building initiatives .

The United Nations Counter-Terrorism and Training Program Office in Africa, based in Rabat, works to develop and implement accredited programs aimed primarily at capacity building and skills development in the field of counter-terrorism. It relies on the pooling of the expertise of Morocco and the UNOCT in order to provide quality training for the benefit of African States, according to a collaborative and united approach reflecting a spirit of collective responsibility.

This side event was attended by the Deputy Under-Secretary of UNOCT, Raffi Gregorian, the Ambassador Permanent Representative of Hungary to the UN, Zsuzsanna Horvath, the Director of Counter-Terrorism at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Ruiz, and the Assistant Director of the Department of international organizations in the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Qatar, Hanouf Al-Thani.