Efforts by the Secretary-General to Counter Terrorism

“Terrorism hurts all nations -- large and small, rich and poor. It takes its toll on human beings of every age and income, culture and religion. It strikes against everything the United Nations stands for. The fight against terrorism is our common mission.”

-- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in statement to Member States on
16 February 2007

Efforts by the Secretary-General to Counter Terrorism

As a result of the increase in violent attacks against civilians and the focus of Member States on this threat, terrorism has become one of the main peace and security challenges on the agenda of secretaries-general in the past years. Through statements and reports, secretaries-general have been consistent in condemning all terrorist actions as unacceptable and unjustifiable, calling on countries to take a united front against such violence and positioning the United Nations system to assist Member States in their counter-terrorism efforts.

Prior to taking office, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon listed terrorism among his priority areas of concern. In his first statement to the Security Council, he stressed that the threat of terrorism demands urgent, sustained and comprehensive attention from the international community.

Recognizing that terrorism continues to be one of the gravest security challenges of our time, Secretary-General Ban has committed himself to strengthening the work of the United Nations to counter this threat. He has assured Member States that the United Nations system already mobilized around the strategy with vigour. Through the work of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force -- which is chaired by the Office of the Secretary-General – UN programmes, funds and specialized agencies with mandates relating to counter-terrorism have developed a programme of work to carry forward a number of initiatives to implement the strategy. As one of the first concrete and practical outcomes of those joint efforts, the Secretary-General launched the Counter-Terrorism Online Handbook to Member States on 16 February 2007.

As one of the inputs to the first review of the implementation of the Strategy by Member States on 4-5 September 2008, the Secretary-General compiled a report on activities of the UN system in implementing the Strategy. The Secretary-General also convened a symposium on supporting victims of terrorism on 9 September 2008.