VOX-Pol’s Kate Coyer and Lisa McInerney are participating in a series of meetings of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) on preventing terrorist use of the Internet at UN Headquarters in New York today and tomorrow.
The CTC was established after the events of 11 September, 2001 to aid States’ abilities to fight terrorism. The CTC-hosted special meeting on ‘Preventing the exploitation of information and communication technologies (ICT) for terrorist purposes, while respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms’ takes place 1 December 2016. A series of technical sessions, organised by the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, precede the special meeting, on 30 November and the morning of 1 December.
In May 2016, the Security Council requested the CTC to present a proposal for a comprehensive international framework with recommended guidelines and good practices to effectively counter the ways in which terrorist groups use their narratives to encourage, motivate, and recruit others to commit terrorist acts. As part of this work, and following on other initiatives, the CTC has organised this special meeting.
Dr. Kate Coyer, Director of the Civil Society and Technology Project, Central European University and a VOX-Pol partner, is a panellist for Session III of the Technical Meeting contributing to a panel on ‘Privacy and freedom of expression in the digital age’.
VOX-Pol’s Programme Manager, Lisa McInerney, will be a panellist for Session II of Thursday’s Special Meeting, contributing to a panel on ‘Counter-messaging and community engagement’, along with senior representatives from UNESCO, Google, and Twitter. The session is moderated by France, Vice-Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee.
Ambassador (ret.) Daniel Stauffacher, Founder and President of the ICT4Peace Foundation, will moderate Session IV of the Technical meeting on ‘Information-Sharing with and self-regulation by the private sector to promote safety and counter-messaging’. In April 2016, the ICT4Peace Foundation and the UN Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (UN CTED) launched a joint project on Private sector Engagement in Responding to Terrorist Use of the Internet and ICT. VOX-Pol’s Coordinator, Prof. Maura Conway, contributed to ICT4Peace’s August 2016 workshop in Zurich, Switzerland on this topic and VOX-Pol serialised the report emanating from the workshop in our Blog here.
Taking place at United Nations headquarters, the meetings are open to Member and Observer States, members of the media, UN entities, intergovernmental organisations, and specialised agencies, as well as invited guests. Proceedings are livestreamed at this address.