ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan

On 19-21 October, UNRCCA in partnership with the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UNCTED) organized a regional expert workshop to raise awareness and enhance the capacity of the Central Asian states in the responsible use and sharing of biometric data to detect, prevent, investigate and prosecute terrorist offences and other serious crimes at borders.

The workshop was organized under the UNOCT-UNCTED Biometric Initiative and in the context of the joint UNRCCA and UNOCT project "Towards the Implementation of the Joint Plan of Action for the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in Central Asia".

40 people representing State Customs and Border Services, Ministries of Interior and other relevant state institutions of the five Central Asian states took part in the workshop. Among the experts were the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights while Countering Terrorism as well as representatives from the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and INTERPOL.    

Participants from Central Asia were acquainted with the latest UN efforts in the area of counter-terrorism and biometrics, with a particular focus on risk assessment procedures while observing basic human rights. The expert workshop also included a scenario based interactive part with exercises on setting up and managing biometric systems to monitor the cross-border movement of people.