The UNODC has opened the debate on cyber-recruitment of terrorists

Terrorism continues to pose a major threat to international peace and security undermining the core values of the United Nations. The Internet has been an emerging platform for the online recruitment of terrorist fighters. Addressing this threat is that much more difficult given the complex and constantly evolving nature of terrorist activity and its recruitment over the internet. Given this complexity, strong coordination and cooperation within national governments and between states and organizations, at the regional and international level, is essential to effectively combat terrorism, to share best practices and lessons learned and to assist with the investigation and prosecution of terrorism cases.

The UNODC has shown a very collaborative and fruitful debate today. It has discussed preventive measures to combat online recruitments of terrorist fighters. While the delegation of Saudi-Arabia, China, Mexico and Australia set the focus primarily on education, other delegations such as Russia or Turkey pledge the primary focus on tech-companies who provide platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, by setting surveillance measures or legal restrictive adaptations.

Although addressing this threat has its complexity, the committee has shown different approaches and dimensions that need to be tackled. Thus, a creation of a task force within the UNODC has been introduced as a proposal in order to tackle as many dimensions as possible against the recruitment of terrorist fighters.