Secretary Kerry
Foreign Minister Davutoglu
Excellencies
Ladies and gentlemen
I would like to thank first of all our host, the United States of America, for welcoming us at this prestigious location. I would also like to thank Turkey and the United States of America for their continued leadership as co-chairs of the GCTF. And I would like to reaffirm our strong commitment to the GCTF.
This week the world has witnessed again the brutality and inhumanity of terrorism. The attacks against visitors of a shopping mall in Kenya and the attack against worshippers at a church in Pakistan have led to numerous dead and wounded. Our thoughts go out to the victims of these attacks and to their families. Switzerland condemns these attacks as it condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
Switzerland’s position regarding the GCTF’s priority areas at the 4th GCTF Ministerial Plenary Meeting
Switzerland welcomes today’s adoption of three new GCTF framework documents that foster a multi-sectoral approach to countering violent extremism, promote community engagement and community-oriented policing as tools to counter violent extremism, and support victims of terrorism after terrorist attacks and in criminal proceedings. The adoption of these new instruments, as well as the four instruments that the GCTF adopted last year, are a reflection of the GCTF’s holistic approach to terrorism.
Switzerland is also pleased to see the progress that has been made with respect to the International Institute on Justice and the Rule of Law. Justice and the rule of law are fundamental principles for Switzerland which is why we offered our support in developing the Institute’s curriculum via the Geneva Center for Security Policy.
Switzerland also welcomes the efforts under way to enhance the practical steps involved in implementing the Algiers Memorandum on Good Practices on Preventing and Denying the Benefits of Kidnapping for Ransom by Terrorists. It is essential to make the perpetrators understand that kidnapping is not a profitable business. Switzerland has stated clearly that it refuses to pay ransom. That is why we have a vital interest in ensuring that our citizens, if they happen to be taken hostage, are not put in more danger than citizens of those countries which allegedly pay ransom.
Switzerland is working towards strengthening international cooperation for the prevention of kidnapping. We also have to improve our coordination to ensure that hostages are released safely and unharmed. For countries with limited capacities to resolve kidnappings by force or with limited personnel resources, international cooperation and mutual support is crucial. When it comes to resolving kidnapping cases without payment of ransom, it is essential to pool resources, intensify the sharing of intelligence and exert influence where special relations by more influential states allow it.
Switzerland’s’ Counterterrorism Priorities for Next Year
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
Allow me to highlight three of Switzerland’s counterterrorism priorities for the next year.
First, we will continue our support for a holistic approach to the fight against terrorism that combines both soft and hard security measures. Security, development and respect for human rights have to be understood as a unity and not as three diverging goals.
This holistic approach, which we endorsed exactly two years ago by adopting the GCTF’s Political Declaration at this very location, is most prominently enshrined in the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. To support this UN strategy, the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) and Switzerland organized the Second International Counter-Terrorism Focal Points Conference in Geneva last June. More than 120 States, 40 international and regional organizations, as well as civil society representatives, discussed regional efforts and challenges in implementing the UN Global Strategy solutions and in addressing the conditions that are conducive to the spread of terrorism.
This summer we also launched a new initiative, the goal of which is to enhance the biennial review of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and to strengthen implementation of the Strategy across all four pillars.
In line with and in pursuit of the GCTF Rabat Memorandum, we are also supporting several initiatives aimed at strengthening the promotion of human rights and the rule of law when fighting terrorism, as well as countering terrorist financing. One of Switzerland’s new initiatives, which permits the adoption of effective counter-terrorism investigations and prosecutions while respecting human rights and the rule of law, will be launched together with the UN in early October. In addition, we will organize another expert meeting on combating money laundering and terrorist financing together with the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa in Abuja in November.
Our second priority for next year is our commitment to foster a multi-stakeholder approach at all levels to the fight against terrorism. This includes cooperation among states and within states, as well as cooperation with international and regional organizations, and amongst these organizations themselves.
In 2014, Switzerland will assume chairmanship of the OSCE. At the end of April 2014 we will organize an OSCE-wide counter-terrorism conference in Interlaken (Switzerland) to explore possibilities for greater synergies between the OSCE, the United Nations and the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum. In accordance with the Dublin Ministerial Decision of December 2012, we endeavor to further the implementation of the OSCE’s cross-dimensional and comprehensive security concept to prevent and combat terrorism. One of the specific topics we would like to address during our chairmanship is the policy of not paying ransom as a disincentive to kidnapping. The OSCE, in particular with its Mediterranean partner states, could play a role in this and develop further initiatives by the G8, the Global-Counterterrorism Forum, and the United Nations.
However, our support for multi-stakeholder cooperation has to go further. As our third priority therefore, we aim to deepen the involvement of civil society and the private sector in the implementation of our counter-terrorism strategies. For us to be able to prevent terrorism from growing, we have to reach local actors and the population on the ground. We have to raise awareness amongst vulnerable groups and local communities. Civil society organizations can play a key role in reaching out to local communities and should therefore be included in such processes. At the same time, we have to counter radicalization without stigmatizing certain communities and excluding them from the de-radicalization process or worse, making them the object of attack by other communities.
We therefore applaud the US and Turkey for their initiative to establish a public-private global fund to support local community efforts to counter violent extremism. We are convinced that this fund can make a sustainable and significant contribution to countering violent extremism at the grassroots level where radicalization to violence and recruitment usually take place.
Switzerland gladly welcomes this initiative and I am happy to announce that preparations to establish the Global Fund in Geneva are already well underway.
Geneva is a major international hub for development, security and human rights issues. It brings together all relevant actors involved in countering violent extremism: states, international organizations, NGOs, numerous multinational companies, and a very well-developed academic sector. For the Global Fund, this offers opportunities for interdisciplinary and cross-sector synergies, and for building up specific partnerships with countries, organizations, persons or companies that may be interested in supporting the Fund.
The spirit of International Geneva is not only a catchword. It stands for Switzerland’s commitment to advance international cooperation and dialogue – and we make every effort to ensure that the dynamics of the Geneva spirit are real. We are therefore confident that Geneva provides an ideal environment for addressing the conditions that are conducive to the spread of terrorism in a comprehensive manner.
Thank you very much for your attention.