Sri Lanka tells UN tangible assistance needed to consolidate restoration of normalcy post-21/4

Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha, who is presently leading the Sri Lanka delegation to the 74th Session of the UN General Assembly, met with Office of Counterterrorism (OCT) Under-Secretary General Vladimir Voronkov and his team, and Counterterrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) Assistant Secretary General (ASG) and Executive Director Michéle Coninsx on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week. Ambassador Kshenuka Senewiratne, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, and other senior officials were associated with the Foreign Secretary.  

The Secretary thanked the UN and the international community, who unreservedly condemned the Easter Sunday attacks, and for supporting the Government in numerous ways. He particularly noted that the recent visit undertaken by CTED ASG Executive Director Michéle Coninsx had provided an opportunity to draw on international best practices in consolidating domestic efforts in countering terrorism and violent extremism among the relevant stakeholders.

The Foreign Secretary briefed Under-Secretary General Voronkov on recent visits undertaken by several Ministers and counterterrorism coordinators from the UK, EU, the US, and Australia, as well as an expert from the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF). Following the latter visit, the areas identified for immediate attention included community policing, youth engagement for social cohesion, monitoring social media, activities targeting vulnerable community hotspots, and deradicalisation. 

Under-Secretary General Voronkov noted work done to strengthen border management, and implementation of the Advance Passenger Information (API) and Passenger Name Records (PNR). In this regard, he expressed the readiness of the UN to provide further assistance to Sri Lanka in future endeavours in integrating with the API/PNR system, and in countering violent extremism. He assured that his office will coordinate with the GoSL on the priorities, during an upcoming visit to Sri Lanka.

ASG Coninsx welcomed the close engagement and the high level of cooperation between CTED and Sri Lanka. Coninsx said that the UN is developing a framework for cooperation with Sri Lanka. This will include measures to be taken that would help Sri Lanka be compliant with international counterterrorism obligations under relevant Security Council Resolutions on returning foreign terrorist fighters and countering violent extremism, as well as border security.

Secretary Aryasinha said Sri Lanka was adopting a whole-of-Government approach in addressing the areas of concern, and that it was important that programs of assistance are tangible and can be integrated within Sri Lanka’s plans. In this regard, the ASG and the Foreign Secretary agreed on the need for both GoSL and the UN to work together to identify tangible actions which will serve the interest of the country.

 The United Nations Office of Counterterrorism (UNOCT) was established through the adoption of General Assembly resolution 71/291 on 15 June 2017, to enhance coordination and coherence across the 38 Global Counterterrorism Coordination Compact (former CTITF) Task Force, to strengthen counterterrorism capacity-building assistance to Member States, and to improve visibility, advocacy and resource mobilization for United Nations counterterrorism efforts.

The CTED was established by the UN Security Council as a special political mission to assist the UN Security Council’s Counterterrorism Committee (CTC), and is tasked with carrying out the policy decisions of the CTC, conduct expert assessments of Member States and facilitate counterterrorism technical assistance to countries.