DOHA, Qatar

On 14-15 December, UNRCCA in partnership with the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and its Programme Office in Doha, and with the support of the Shura Council of the State of Qatar and the European Union, convened the roundtable “The Role of Parliamentarians in the Implementation of National Action Plans for Addressing Terrorism and Violent Extremism Conducive to Terrorism”. The meeting took place in a hybrid format in Doha and brought together more than sixty participants representing the Parliaments of the Central Asian states and Qatar as well as different UN entities, the European Union, the OSCE and a number of regional inter-parliamentary organizations.

The aim of the roundtable was to empower the Central Asian parliamentarians in elaborating and implementing national strategies and plans on preventing violent extremism and countering terrorism through increasing knowledge, sharing experience and establishing regional contacts.     

At the opening of the meeting, SRSG Natalia Gherman underlined that prevention of violent extremism and countering terrorism are among top priority areas of UNRCCA engagement in the region. With the new emerging challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the evolving situation in Afghanistan, the importance of this engagement significantly increased in recent years. The SRSG also reaffirmed readiness of UNRCCA to continue supporting the Central Asian states both in their regional as well as country specific efforts, including through assisting with the development of national strategies and plans.   

The roundtable was organized within the framework of the UNRCCA and UNOCT project “Towards the implementation of the Joint Plan of Action for the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in Central Asia” and the UN-EU initiative on strengthening resilience against violent extremism in Asia (STRIVE Asia).