WAM NEW YORK: The UAE on Friday renewed its unwavering commitment to the implementation of all four pillars of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and called on the international community to step up efforts to strengthen the goals of the Strategy to eradicate all forms of the scourge.

He said while the UAE was satisfied with the results achieved thus far in implementing the Strategy at national and regional levels, through the United Nations, it was nevertheless concerned that efforts to put in action all four pillars of the framework remained insufficient," Permanent Representative of the UAE to the United Nations Ahmed Abdul Rehman Al-Jarman said in a statement before the General Assembly's meeting for the third biennial review of the 2006 United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy held at the UN headquarters in New York.

"That was due to the continuation of many of the conditions that contributed to terrorist acts, such as aggression and the illegal use of force, which required the international community to revamp its mechanisms and strengthen its efforts to address and contain such conditions." Indeed, he said, terrorist acts continued and were becoming more sophisticated, which made it essential to strengthen cooperation and coordination to, among others, prevent all forms of terrorist financing, such as piracy, drugs and arms smuggling and arms trafficking. Coordination must be stepped up in other areas, including information sharing and strengthening legal frameworks.

He said there was a need to reaffirm the commitment of all Member States to the principles of the Charter and to international human rights law.

"The United Arab Emirates condemned all forms of terrorism and had taken a variety of measures to implement the Strategy, including enhancing its national legal framework, strengthening measures against money laundering, and enhancing all legal measures for preventing and prosecuting transnational crimes such as arms and drugs smuggling." He said the UAE was completing arrangements to host the headquarters in Abu Dhabi of the International Centre for Excellence on Countering Violent Extremism. That Centre would officially open in October and would be the first global forum where Governments and civil society organizations could coordinate their efforts to tackle extremism.

called on Member States, the United Nations and other appropriate international, regional and subregional organizations to step up their efforts to implement the framework in an integrated and balanced manner. That language echoed Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser, who yesterday told the 193-member body that "only through strong political will, and by implementation and delivery, can we realize our hopes of a world free of terrorism" Adopted by the General Assembly in September 2006, the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy is based on four pillars: tackling the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism; preventing and combating terrorism; building States' capacity to prevent and combat terrorism and to strengthen the role of the UN system in that regard; ensuring respect for human rights for all and the rule of law as the fundamental basis for the fight against terrorism.

WAM/MMYS