UN envoy hails Cameroon’s Anti-Terrorism law

The Executive Director of UN’s Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate, Jean-Paul Laborde, was received on Monday at the Ministry of External Relations in Yaounde.

The Law to Suppress Acts of Terrorism adopted by Parliament on December 4, 2014 and later promulgated by the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, on December 23, 2014, has been hailed by visiting Executive Director of UN’s Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (C.T.E.D.), Jean-Paul Laborde. “It is an anti-terrorism law that merits to exist,” he told the press yesterday after an audience with the Minister Delegate in the Ministry of External Relations in charge of Relations with the Islamic World, Adoum Gargoum.

“But we have to boost its efficiency by complying with international instruments. We have discussed with the Minister that we will move forward in that direction,” Jean-Paul Laborde added.

He said he was heading a delegation to assess not only Cameroon’s compliance to three key UN Security Council Resolutions for the fight against terrorism but to also identify areas where the country needs UN assistance. “We want to support the efforts of Cameroon in the fight against Boko Haram and against Terrorism,” he affirmed. However, the UN Official thought the fight should involve more than just military action. “This fight has to be conceived in a comprehensive way to involve the judiciary, law enforcement, countering violent extremism and meeting development needs,” he explained.

Jean-Paul Laborde and his team as well as other stakeholders are holding working sessions with competent government services to assess the level of implementation of the three UN Security Council Resolutions. According to the UN Official, Resolution 1373 adopted by the Security Council on September 28, 2001 obliges countries to bring terrorists to justice, cut their financial sources and sever links between organised crime and terrorism.

Resolution 1624 that was adopted on September 14, 2005 dwells on the need for States to cooperate in order to strengthen the security of their international borders by enhancing terrorist screening and passenger security procedures while Resolution 2178 of September 24, 2014 recommends the fight against violent extremism and the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters.