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  1. UNOCT CT TECH initiative begins tailored capacity-building support to strengthen law enforcement capacities in new technologies

UNOCT CT TECH initiative begins tailored capacity-building support to strengthen law enforcement capacities in new technologies

On 9-12 January 2024, the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism CT TECH initiative completed its first national workshop for Trinidad and Tobago under the theme  “developing national counter-terrorism policy and operational responses to counter the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes while protecting human rights”. The workshop marks the start of tailored national capacity building stage of the initiative. 

In this phase, five selected Partner States will strengthen their capacities to conduct national threat assessments of the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes and design policy recommendations to address these threats using good practices, processes and techniques developed under CT TECH. They will also identify opportunities, gaps, and areas for improvement of their law enforcement capabilities to adopt new technologies to counter terrorism.

During the four-day workshop, 29 Trinidad and Tobago officials from the Office of the Prime Minister, Ministry of National Security, Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs, as well as representatives from other judiciary, law enforcement, intelligence and security organizations, defence and cybersecurity institutions, and academia attended the event. The participants:

  • discussed roles, responsibilities, structures, and processes in place for assessing terrorist threats and designing policy responses to the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes.
  • developed, assessed, and prioritized threat scenarios for the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes.
  • conducted exercises to design and measure the effectiveness of counter-terrorism policy responses in mitigating threats.
  • explored ways to incorporate and mainstream human rights and gender equality considerations into threat assessments and policy responses and to ensure that new technologies in counter-terrorism are used in a human rights-compliant and gender-sensitive manner.
  • discussed the status of law enforcement capabilities to use new technologies for countering terrorism across policy, legal and institutional pillars to identify gaps and areas for improvement and capacity-building, including through a human rights and gender equality lens.
     

Participants welcomed the workshop and the opportunity to develop new skills and approaches to countering the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes through policy and operational approaches that are gender-responsive and human-rights compliant. 

In his opening remarks, Mr. Terrence Pierre, Assistant Commissioner of Police and Head of Special Branch explained: “As we are all very aware, innovations in technology require changes in strategy. And we must do so while maintaining respect for Human Rights and the Rule of law. In short terms, we must learn to adapt, and adapt quickly”.

UNOCT will organize follow-up national capacity-building workshops for Trinidad and Tobago to discuss the progress made and address challenges faced while developing national capabilities to adopt new technologies to counter-terrorism. 

The CT TECH Initiative of UNOCT’s UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) was launched in 2022 with INTERPOL and the European Union and is implemented under the UNOCT/UNCCT Global CT Programme on Cybersecurity and New Technologies in close cooperation with UNOCT’s Human Rights and Gender Section. The goal of the 2.5-year initiative is to strengthen the capacities of law enforcement and criminal justice authorities to counter the exploitation of new technologies for terrorist purposes and to leverage new technologies in the fight against terrorism.  Since its launch, close to 1,000 officials from 35 CT TECH Partner States benefited from this initiative.