The Diplomat
The Minister of Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, closed yesterday in Malaga the High Level International Conference on Human Rights, Civil Society and the Fight against Terrorism, organized by the UN and the Government of Spain.
During his speech at the closing ceremony, which was also attended by the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Office to Combat Terrorism (UNOCT), Vladimir Voronkov, the Minister stated that “in the defense of human rights, in the fight against terrorism and in the protection of its victims, the international community will always find in Spain its strongest ally”.
“Spain is a country that can bear witness to the harshness with which terrorism strikes democratic societies, but it can also prove that democratic values offer us useful instruments to defeat terrorist organizations,” he continued. Apart from that, “Spain has a pioneering law, 29/2011 on the Recognition and Comprehensive Protection of Victims of Terrorism, whose preamble proclaims that they are victims of serious human rights violations, which reinforces their normative status and links their rights to the constitutional and universal values of open and democratic societies.”
During the event, Grande-Marlaska explained to the attendees the tools available to the Spanish Government to combat terrorism, such as the National Strategy Against Terrorism, which is implemented through the Specialized Committee Against Terrorism – a body created in 2020 to assist the National Security Council in the planning and coordination of the fight against terrorism; the Anti-Terrorism Prevention, Protection and Response Plan; the National Strategic Plan to Prevent and Combat Violent Radicalization, the Program for Intervention with Jihadist Inmates in Prisons and the National Strategic Plan against the Financing of Terrorism.
At the end of the Conference, which began on Tuesday and was held at the Palace of Fairs and Congresses of Malaga, Grande-Marlaska and Voronkov held a bilateral meeting in which, among other issues, they addressed the process of opening a regional headquarters of the UNOCT in Madrid, whose entry into operation will occur this 2022, as indicated by the Ministry. The upcoming Madrid office -whose opening was advanced in early March by the deputy director of International Cooperation against Terrorism of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Diaz- will be in charge of developing projects related to the use of sport as a tool against radicalism, the protection of vulnerable targets and critical infrastructures and the defense of victims.
Spanish proposals at the Victims’ Congress in New York
The Minister of the Interior also took advantage of the bilateral meeting to convey to the United Nations Deputy Secretary General Spain’s support for the holding of the first Global Congress of Victims of Terrorism, scheduled for next September in New York. At this meeting, as announced the day before by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, during the opening of the Conference, Spain will try to promote the constitution of a global network of victims’ associations and the creation of a global trust fund for victims of terrorism to complement and support the public policies that already exist at the national level.
The High-Level International Conference on Human Rights, Civil Society and Counter-Terrorism brought together representatives of numerous UN member states, UN agencies, international and regional organizations, human rights institutions and experts on the various issues addressed.
The working sessions, held behind closed doors, were attended by two members of the Spanish Ministry of the Interior: Manuel Navarrete, director of the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO), and Montserrat Torija, director general of Support for Victims of Terrorism, who took advantage of her intervention to report on the Spanish system for victims, whose main milestones have been the creation, in 2006, of the General Directorate of Support for Victims of Terrorism in the Ministry of the Interior and the approval, in 2011, of the current Law on the Recognition and Comprehensive Protection of Victims of Terrorism, a “pioneering, consensus-based law, a benchmark at the international level, inspired by the principles of memory, dignity, justice and truth”.
The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism was established on June 15, 2017 by a decision of the United Nations General Assembly. The creation of the Office was the first major institutional reform undertaken by UN Secretary-General António Guterres following his report on the capacity of the United Nations to assist Member States in the implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. The Malaga Conference was a follow-up to the Virtual Dialogue with human rights and civil society partners on building a better paradigm to prevent and combat terrorism, which UNOCT and the Spanish Government organized on 25-26 May 2021.
