Global Surveys of the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions.

On 2 November 2021, the Counter-Terrorism Committee adopted the updated edition of its Global survey of the implementation of Security Council resolution 1373 (2001) and other relevant resolutions by Member States, which is based on the assessment of States’ counter-terrorism efforts by the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED). Since 2005, CTED has visited 117 Member States and completed a total of 181 comprehensive, focused, regional and follow-up visits.

Regarded as the most comprehensive analytical documents on counter-terrorism in the UN system, the Committee’s Global implementation surveys (GIS) consider where progress has been made and where gaps remain and identify where the international community might most usefully focus its efforts. The surveys also contain global assessments of Member States’ efforts across all major thematic areas addressed by the relevant resolutions. They are  updated every few years.

The nature of the global terrorist threat has continued to evolve since the publication of the previous edition of the survey, in 2016, compelling Member States to adapt their policies and approaches to address new challenges and existing gaps in their counter-terrorism measures. Those challenges include the evolution of the foreign terrorist fighter (FTF) threat; the rising threat of terrorism in conflict areas; the emergence of new terrorist methodologies; the growing threat of terrorist attacks on the basis of xenophobia, racism and other forms of intolerance, along with the growing emergence of some transnational linkages between such terrorist groups and, most recently, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 1373 GIS is a global analysis of the implementation of counter-terrorism measures by all Member States, examined on a regional basis using consistent criteria as an analytical tool. This edition introduces for the first time selected regional spotlights on issues in particular regions that deserve special attention based on a risk-based approach to analysis and the findings of CTED’s recent assessment visits. At the conclusion of each regional subsection, the survey provides a summary of some of the priority recommendations that the Committee has made to Member States since the previous survey to strengthen their implementation of resolution 1373 (2001). CTED hopes that these recommendations will also be useful for other international organizations and bilateral donors working in the field of counter-terrorism.

The Committee also adopted the updated edition of its Global survey of the implementation of Security Council resolution 1624 (2005) by Member States. The 1624 GIS was prepared by CTED pursuant to the request of the Security Council, contained in its resolution 2395 (2017), that CTED update the previous survey (S/2016/50), issued in January 2016. It contains a detailed regional overview of the steps taken by States to implement Security Council resolutions aimed at countering incitement to commit terrorist acts, violent extremism, and terrorist narratives, focusing primarily on the implementation of resolution 1624 (2005), which calls on all States to prohibit by law incitement to commit a terrorist act or acts. According to CTED’s analysis, as of 1 March 2021, 112 States had expressly criminalized incitement to commit a terrorist act or acts in their national legislation (compared with a figure of “at least 76 States”, as of 1 November 2015).

The survey notes that two other Security Council resolutions are directly relevant to the implementation of resolution 1624 (2005). Council resolution 2178 (2014), on the threat to international peace and security posed by foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs), contains a provision encouraging States to engage relevant local communities and non-governmental actors in developing strategies “to counter the violent extremist narrative that can incite terrorist acts”. It proposes that this can be achieved by addressing the conditions conducive to the spread of violent extremism, which can be conducive to terrorism, including by “empowering youth, families, women, religious, cultural and education leaders, and all other concerned groups of civil society”. This approach has come to be known as countering violent extremism (CVE).

The survey also takes into account Security Council resolution 2354 (2017), on the threat to international peace and security posed by terrorist narratives spread by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as Daesh; Al-Qaida; and other terrorist groups. That resolution encourages States to develop programmes to counter terrorist narratives, stressing that States have the primary responsibility in countering terrorist acts and violent extremism conducive to terrorism and noting that counter-narrative efforts “can benefit through engagement with a wide range of actors, including youth, families, women, religious, cultural, and education leaders, and other concerned groups of civil society”.

An overview of the two surveys is available here.

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