Egypt and the European Union co-chaired the 13th Ministerial Meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) in New York on Wednesday. The GCTF is a multilateral forum for exchanging experiences and best practices in the fight against terrorism and extremism.
In his speech, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry highlighted the magnitude of the suffering that the people of some countries continue to face from the threat of terrorism and its repercussions, especially in light of the development of the forms and practices of terrorist organizations and groups.
He stressed the need for concerted international efforts to confront and uproot such contemporary terrorist threats, as well as devising new methods of confrontation that keep up with the successive developments in the working methods of these organizations while drying up their funding sources.
This is in order to prevent more innocent victims, stop the waves of displacement, and ensure the realization of human rights guaranteed by international conventions.
Minister Shoukry also stressed the need not to repeat the mistakes of the past, which led to the provision of safe havens to terrorist organizations and the movement of their members to other countries and regions, in a way that led to the growing spread of the phenomenon of foreign fighters.
He reiterated the need to redouble efforts to combat terrorism at its roots, which is represented by extremist and inciting thought, by providing an umbrella for the ideology used by various terrorist organizations, and to confront those who embrace this ideology and support it so that all countries will bear their responsibilities in dealing with the repercussions of such policies.
The joint Egyptian-European chairmanship of the ministerial meeting had included the issue of the rehabilitation and reintegration of former terrorists as a major topic on the agenda of the meeting, given its high rank in the fight against terrorism in order to prevent these elements from returning once again to the clutches of terrorist organizations, and the complexities of this process.
This requires working within the framework of a comprehensive approach to correct the path of these elements and correcting their erroneous ideas that are contrary to the true religions and their tolerant teachings.
In his speech, the Minister of Foreign Affairs also confirmed Egypt’s adoption at the national level of a comprehensive strategy to combat terrorism in all its security, economic and social dimensions, and its long-standing awareness of the importance of the rehabilitation and integration of former terrorists into society.
In this regard, he pointed to the positive and tangible results of the national program focusing on the intellectual dimension, under which the project of Egypt’s Dar Al-Iftaa in 2017 was launched under the title “Dissecting the Mind of Extremists” to refute extremist rhetoric and prove that the approach of terrorist organizations is misguided by the legitimacy of the law, in addition to providing the necessary psychological rehabilitation for these elements, as well as vocational education and training in a way that contributes to their reintegration into society.
Minister Shoukry also stressed the importance of cooperation at the regional level, especially among African States, noting the important role played by the Cairo Regional Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding(CCCPA) in providing capacity-building programs in African States, as well as strengthening cooperation with the African Union(AU) in the development of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration guidelines in the context of countering extremism.
During its co-chairmanship of the forum, Egypt expressed its willingness to strengthen its role in supporting the efforts of national countries to implement the UN counter-terrorism strategy in its four axes, building the capacities of states and mobilizing the necessary political support at the international level to ensure the success of the relevant efforts.
