The Diplomat
The plenary session of the Congress yesterday authorized the agreement between Spain and the UN for the opening in Madrid of a United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office (UNCTO), agreed in June 2022 in New York.
With 322 votes in favor, one against and 22 abstentions, the Lower House approved the opinion of the Foreign Affairs Committee to authorize the Government to establish the Office, as adopted last November by the Council of Ministers.
The idea of establishing a regional UNOCT program office in Spain emerged during the Coordination Committee of the Global Counterterrorism Forum held in Malaga in March 2019 and was addressed by the Minister of Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and the UNOCT Deputy Secretary General, Vladimir Voronkov, in the margins of the High Level International Conference on Human Rights, Civil Society and Counter-Terrorism, organized last May by the UN and the Government of Spain in the same Andalusian city.
The agreement for the implementation of the Office was signed last June 22 in New York, one day after the Council of Ministers approved its signature and provisional application at the proposal of the Ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs. The UNOCT headquarters in Madrid, as detailed in the agreement, will be responsible for the management and implementation of programs and projects related to the prevention and fight against violent extremism, the protection of vulnerable targets, the promotion and protection of human rights in the fight against terrorism, support for victims of terrorism and bilateral and multilateral cooperation, among other matters. The agreement also establishes that Spain will provide a series of administrative and operational support services to the UN office, will place at its disposal the appropriate facilities and will provide it with the necessary public services for the performance of its work.
