STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR BURHAN GAFOOR, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE TO THE UNITED NATIONS, ON AGENDA ITEM 111, ON MEASURES TO ELIMINATE INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM, SIXTH COMMITTEE, 3 OCTOBER 2018

1                 Thank you very much Mdm Chair, it is a pleasure to see you chairing our meeting. Let me also offer my congratualtions to you and members of the bureau on their election to this very important committee. You can rest assured that the Singapore delegation will work with you very closely to ensure a very productive session.

2                 Mdm Chair, international terrorism continues to be a grave concern for Singapore. And as with many other countries, Singapore views terrorism as inherently contrary to the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and as something that should be stongly condemned under all circumstances. In brief, terrorism undermines everything that we at the United Nations are working towards, namely, global peace, security, prosperity, and the rule of law. 

3                 Mdm Chair, I wish to make three points. First, Singapore has adopted a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy. This involves continual enhancement of our capabilities for security and community responses to terrorism. The community plays a very vital role in Singapore, in strengthening and safeguarding our social fabric against terrorism. We have also, in recent years, strengthened partnerships with religious organisations as well as with community leaders, and we have been working closely with them to counter the spread of extremist ideologies.

4                 The second point that I wish to make is that our counter-terrorism strategy is underpinned by a robust legal and regulatory regime. In 2016, the Financial Action Task Force assessed Singapore’s framework for combatting money laundering and terrorism financing as being strong. We have, nevertheless, continued to review and update our laws and regulations, and we have also introduced new laws where necessary, to ensure that our security forces have the necessary authority and powers to prevent and deal with the threat of terrorism as effectively as possible.

5                 My third point concerns developments at the international level. Here I would like to say that Singapore remains committed to supporting a strong, sustained, and coordinated global response to terrorism. We are a party to 14 universal counter-terrorism agreements, and we take the implementation of these agreements very seriously. Just last week, Singapore signed the Code of Conduct Towards Achieving a World Free of Terrorism. I take this opportunity to commend Kazakhstan for launching this very important initiative, and I recall that it was an iniative that they had first raised at this Committee last year. Counter-terrorism is also one of the key priorities of Singapore’s chairmanship of ASEAN this year. In fact, this week in Singapore, we will be hosting the “2018 Southeast Asia Counter-Terrorism Symposium”, which aims to foster greater counter-terrorism cooperation in our region.

6                 For Singapore, the United Nations has, and will continue to have, an important role to play in coordinating a global response to terrorism. We support the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, which enters into its twelfth year, and we welcome the adoption of the General Assembly’s resolution on the sixth review of the Strategy this year. And I would like to take this opportunity to place on record our appreciation and thanks to Ambassador Kai Sauer of Finland and Ambassador Sima Bahous of Jordan, for their successful work in co-facilitating the sixth review. We also commend the Secretary-General for convening the first High-Level Conference of Heads of Counter-Terrorism Agencies of Member States in June this year, and we acknowledge the important role that the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism and other UN bodies play in counter-terrorism efforts. In this regard, I would like to make a suggestion that this Committee consider inviting a representative of the Office of Counter-Terrorism to participate in and attend the discussions in this Committee as we think it is relevant to their work.

7                 Last year, Mdm Chair, the General Assembly recommended that the Sixth Committee, at the seventy-third session, establish a working group with a view to finalising the process on the draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. We would like to congratulate Ambassador Rohan Perera, the Ambassador of Sri Lanka, on his work as Chair of the working group and we know that he has worked very hard to build consensus on this issue for many years. And we also wish to acknowledge the good work done by Mr Angel Horna of Peru for his contributions as coordinator of the outstanding issues on the draft Convention.

8                 It is quite clear that progress on the draft Convention has been slow. But we think this is something that we need to continue to do our best to find agreement. In this regard, we would welcome the coordinator’s initiative to stimulate discussions on draft Article 3[18], which pertains to the relationship between the draft Convention and other legal regimes. And we, as Singapore, look forward to participating in these discussions, and to working with other delegations to try and resolve the outstanding issues in order to achieve a consensual outcome.

9                 Thank you very much, Mdm Chair.

.   .   .   .   .