29 October 2022 - On day 2 of the Special Meeting, the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) unanimously adopted the Delhi Declaration on countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes. Among the listed items in the Declaration include the decision to continue to work on recommendations on the three themes of the Special meeting and the intention to develop a set of non-binding guiding principles to assist Member States to counter the threat posed by the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes. The declaration aims to cover the main concerns surrounding the abuse of drones, social media platforms, and crowdfunding, and create guidelines that will help to tackle the growing issue. Members of the Committee will draft recommendations to counter the terrorist exploitation of Information and Communications Technology, such as payment technologies and fundraising methods and misuse of unmanned aerial systems (UAS, or drones). The Declaration also decided on a new set of non-binding guiding principles to assist Member States in countering the digital terrorism threat will be issued, with a compilation of good practices on the opportunities offered by the same set of technologies to tackle threats.
H.E. Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, Chair of the CTC, opened day 2 of the special meeting, underscoring the CTC’s growing concern of the increase in use of new technologies for terrorist purposes, highlighting that varied technologies are becoming cheaper and more readily available. H.E. Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, Chair of the CTC, noted several areas of concern, including the proliferation in online activities, the use of social media to target vulnerable individuals, misinformation and disinformation to fuel societal divisions, the malicious use of artificial intelligence, and the use of payment technologies to fundraise terrorist organizations. H.E. Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, Chair of the CTC concluded by highlighting that Member States, the public sector, and the private sector can work together to harness the promise of emerging technologies for its intended purpose – to accelerate global progress for the benefit of humankind.
As part of the special meeting, Mr. Weixiong Chen, Acting Executive Director of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) conducted an opening statement which highlighted ‘how we develop and deploy technology will determine how effectively we shall be able to tackle new and emerging threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.’ Mr Chen underscored CTED’s commitment to assist Member States, the Security Council, the Committee, other UN entities and international and regional partners towards the challenges and opportunities posed by new and emerging technologies.
Additionally, the three thematic briefings that took place as part of the meeting stressed several areas of concern.
Thematic Briefing I focused on countering terrorist exploitation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Discussions were led by Ms. Jennifer Bramlette, Legal Officer and Coordinator for Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) who stressed “the involvement of a broad range of stakeholders is necessary to ensure that measures and policies developed to prevent and counter terrorist and violent extremist abuse of the cyber domain are crafted in a comprehensive and holistic manner, with adequate civil and human rights protections, so that they are ultimately implemented in accordance with a whole-of-society approach…”. Further statements were made from organizations including Global Internet Forum to Counter-Terrorism (GIFCT), Tech Against Terrorism, and Meta.
Thematic Briefing II focused on countering terrorism financing – threats and opportunities related to new payment technologies and fundraising methods. Ms. Svetlana Martynova, Senior Legal Officer and Coordinator on Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), CTED highlighted how ‘virtual assets and other emerging financial technologies, can be vulnerable to abuse by terrorist financiers, especially in the absence of proper regulation and enforcement measures which would be based on a rigorous assessment of risks, impacts and outcomes.’
Thematic Briefing III focused on Threats poses by terrorist use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), with discussions lead by Philippe Morange, Senior Legal Officer and Coordinator for Border Management and Law Enforcement (BMLE), CTED who highlighted that ‘Regulating UAS requires a whole-of-Government approach to further enhance and support research and knowledge on this threat as well as Partnerships with private sector, academia, civil society, and UN agencies.’ Moreover, Jonah Leff, Director of Conflict Armament Research emphasized "there is a growing need for entities further down the supply chain, such as retailers and distributors, to enhance their record keeping of sales of sensitive goods and ‘multiple application’ technologies used in the construction of UAS, so that suspicious consignments and sales can be more easily detected."
The thematic briefings were followed by overarching considerations by several speakers. Speakers included Ms. Kanta Singh, Deputy Country Representative, UN Women India, who emphasized how ‘gender-sensitive interpretation of the right to freedom; an internationally accepted standard on what constituted online gender-based violence, hate speech and disinformation; and ensuring responses by the Member States are aligned with the level of harm are much needed.’
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