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Secretary General Calls for Continuing the Fight against Terrorism “Relentlessly and without Pause” in Opening Meeting of CICTE of the OAS

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, today opened the fifteenth period of sessions of the Inter-American Committee against Terrorism (CICTE) at the headquarters of the Organization in Washington DC, with a call to fight terrorism “relentlessly and without pause.”

Secretary General Insulza, who opened the meeting together with the Chair of CICTE and Interim Representative of Canada to the OAS, Jennifer May Loten, and the Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (UNCTED), Weixiong Chen, said that “this is a good time to affirm that the governments and peoples of the Americas will continue fighting terrorism relentlessly and without pause.”

The leader of the hemispheric institution, who concludes his term on May 25, said “I bid farewell to this Committee proud of the work it has done and of its concrete results. They are too many to mention at this time. Suffice it to say that they all have contributed to strengthening the welfare and security of our peoples."

On the central theme of the meeting, “protecting physical infrastructure,” the Secretary General underlined the work of CICTE in three areas. In cyber security, he recalled that “our program has carried out various measures to improve the technical capacities of the member countries in industrial protection and in promoting the exchange of experiences and best practices.” In tourism security, the OAS leader said CICTE has carried out training sessions and workshops on security and has promoted public-private alliances. As a third point, Insulza said the Committee has worked to strengthen the security of global supply chains, through programs of partnerships between public and private sectors to secure international trade against criminal threats.

In addition, the Secretary General warned that critical infrastructure is “a particularly vulnerable target for any terrorist or vandalistic action,” and called for “the promotion of regional and subregional cooperation to address the terrorist threats to critical infrastructure that can affect the production of commodities, international trade and the supply chain.” In this context, he urged states to “adopt all the actions necessary to prevent, mitigate and dissuade potential terrorist threats to critical infrastructure, through the development and implementation of national measures and the strengthening of regional and international cooperation.”

The Secretary General recalled that CICTE is the body of the OAS “through which the member states promote and develop hemispheric cooperation to prevent, combate and eliminate terrorism in the context of respect for international law and the sovereignty of states.” Its existence, he added, is due to the conviction that “terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations and whatever it origin or motivation, has no justification.”

For her part the Chair of CICTE and Interim Representative of Canada to the OAS, Jennifer May Loten, said the protection of critical infrastructure “is a worthy focus for our efforts to face new terrorist at the national and transnational levels.” The Canadian representative emphasized that “dealing with cyber threats nationally is not enough, and we should continue to improve cyber infrastructure protection with modern incident response capabilities in the Americas.”

“Protecting such infrastructure is a shared responsibility” said Ambassador Loten, given “the interconnected nature of critical infrastructure across territories and national borders.” In her concluding comments, she highlighted that CICTE “has been and needs to be a reliable and capable partner in strengthening hemispheric security and a body that should be prepared to face new and emerging threats.”

The Deputy Executive Director of UNCTED, Weixiong Chen, said “The importance of critical infrastructure protection cannot be overemphasized. By maintaining a high degree of protection of critical infrastructure and increasing resiliency against threats we can minimize the loss of human lives and of services to society as a whole.”

In terms of the role of the OAS and CICTE, Deputy Executive Director Chen said “The United Nations recognizes the vital role played by regional entities such as the OAS in fostering cooperation, maintaining networks of communication and establishing mutual assistance mechanisms. In the area of counter-terrorism capacity building, CICTE represents a model for institutions throughout the world.”

The fifteenth ordinary period of sessions of CICTE will take place until Friday, March 20. During the meeting, the member states will debate issues such as “Physical Infrastructure: energy, financial, transportation and telecommunications systems;” “Security of Tourism and Recreational Facilities: a Multidimensional Approach;” “Digital Critical Infrastructure: Cyber Security.”

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The video news of the event will be available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-092/15