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You will recall that Turkey has assumed the coordinating role of the implementation of the CICA Catalogue on Confidence Building Measures in the area of new challenges and threats.
In this capacity Turkey organized in January 2008 the first CICA Experts Meeting on the implementation of Confidence Building Measures in the Area of New Challenges and Threats, which was a unique opportunity and experience for the experts from 16 CICA Member States as well as 6 Observer States, including key-note speakers from the UNODC, OSCE, IOM and the Turkish National Police.
Following the aforementioned meeting a “Consolidated Summary” and an “Action Plan” were prepared by the Turkish side and disseminated to the Member States. The Action Plan was adopted at the meeting of the Senior Officials Committee on 23 August 2008. The Action Plan can be accessed under:
www.s-CICA.org/admin/upload/files/Action_plan_new_threats_and_challenges.doc
Under Article II of the Action Plan, entitled “Police Related Issues”, the Member States have agreed to the convening of a CICA Chiefs of Police meeting in order to consider inter-alia, establishment of a calendar for twice yearly seminars on police related issues; defining needs assessment and institutional capacity with regard to “train the trainers” programs; modalities for the timely sharing of information through the Interpol database on lost and stolen documents and establishment of a CICA focal points network.
Turkey intends to enhance the efforts and accelerate the process in the area of New Threats and Challenges, which has been previously launched with the first experts group held on January 2008, in Ankara, following the related stipulations in the Almaty Declaration and in the light of the below mentioned articles of the CICA Catalogue on Confidence Building Measures, Section 3, "Fight against new challenges and threats", which defines these challenges and threats in the following terms,
· Curbing terrorism (3.1),
· Preventing activities of separatist and extremist organizations (3.1),
· Developing mechanisms to combat the activities of organized criminal groups (3.2),
· Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery means (3.3),
· Curbing drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, trans-boundary organized crime, illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, smuggling of explosives and poisonous materials (3.4),
These are further elaborated in the document on "Cooperative Approach for the implementation of CICA CBMs", under the heading of "Area of new challenges and threats", with the addition of the following elements:
- Human smuggling,
- Illegal migration,
- MANPADS,
- Economic and cyber crimes,
For being coherent with the 1st Experts Group Meeting and Plan of Action and in order to preserve our focus, Turkey proposes to limit the scope of this meeting to four broad thematic areas (terrorism, border control and management, police related issues, trafficking issues) with the understanding that:
a) This meeting is pretended to be a pervasive initiative to define the milestones of police cooperation in the scope of CICA CBM’s and New Threats and Challenges title of said Catalogue.
b) Member States will be free to bring up any item for discussion during the course of the meeting,
c) Other items which are not included on the agenda of this “Chiefs of Police” meeting will be taken up at subsequent same level meetings and experts seminars as well.
d) Hence, the Turkish proposal for the agenda of the present meeting, to be found at the end of this introductory paper, does not imply any sort of national preference, prioritization or selectivity.
II- Purpose
Turkey sees the purpose of the Chiefs of Police meeting as threefold:
The aim of the first CICA Chiefs of Police Meeting is to bring together the relevant high level decision makers of the CICA Member States in the area of police matters to discuss and to make concrete proposals on a broad range of issues where strengthened coordination and cooperation is needed among the police agencies of Member States in order to further enhanced security and stability in the CICA geography.
As an opportunity to describe the present situation of the member states with an overall view to the CICA Region in the area of fight against New Threats and Challenges item of CICA CBM’s Catalogue and as a platform for dialogue between member and observer parties, providing them with a forum to share their views on those new challenges and threats which they see as particularly relevant to their security, as well as to exchange views on their national experiences in this regard. Thereby, the member States will give guidance to the future work of CICA in those areas which they see as constituting priority ones.
To identify practical steps (these can be both bilateral as well as multilateral) and joint actions through the elaboration of clear and concrete mechanisms for the implementation of CBM's in the area of new challenges and threats, as stipulated in the introductory section of the "Cooperative Approach" document, paragraph 2.
The CICA documents referred to in Section I (Background) of this paper already identify a set of basic tools for the implementation of the above CBMs. These are:
· Exchange of information and developing mechanisms for fighting terrorism, on measures taken to curb organized crime and activities related to it, on economic and cyber crimes, and on legal, judicial and criminal matters as well,
· Promoting law enforcement co-operation,
· Assisting in establishing and strengthening contacts between authorities of member States,
· Exchange of information on status of accession to and/or ratification of relevant international legal instruments.
To these, a host of others can be added, such as (but not limited to):
· Training and capacity building seminars,
· Appointment of special representatives on issues of common concern with a specific mandate, to be decided upon by the member States,
· Organization of specialized workshops,
· Regular annual activity on a specific pre-determined topic of common interest,
· High level meetings organized in conjunction with other relevant International organizations on specific topics with a view to defining CICA's unique niche,
· Establishment of Contact Points at the Secretariat, in order to enable the Secretariat to be able to function as a clearing house for issues of common interest/concern,
· Preparation by the Secretariat of "Newsletters" in order to support an information sharing mechanism on specific issues,
· Elaboration of "Questionnaires" and compilation of overviews from such questionnaires with a view to defining compatibility and fostering co-operation on specific issues,
· Elaboration of Information Exchange Templates on specific issues,
· Elaboration of "Best Practice Guides"
· Compilation by the Secretariat of a calendar of key international meetings and events in the area of new threats and challenges, to which CICA may make its regional contribution, thus not only serving to bring member States together around specific issues, but also raising the profile and visibility of CICA.
Naturally all of the above are only indicative of the various tools and mechanisms which may be deployed. All have cost and human resource implications, which may not be readily available to CICA and/or member States. Therefore, a step by step approach will be necessary, focusing on priority areas.
Turkey, while fully cognizant of the fact that the "CICA CBMs will be applied on a gradual and voluntary basis" and that the measures identified therein are "recommendatory in nature", however, is of the opinion, that if CICA wants to be a credible international regional partner in the global fight against new threats and challenges to security, CICA CBMs must be uniformly implemented by all its member States with the understanding that they constitute politically binding commitments applicable equally to all, and that the member States are accountable towards one another for their full implementation.
III- Participation
As for the event is planned as an “Chiefs of Police Meeting", it is kindly asked for the participation of General Directors/Inspector Generals of Police Organizations along with High Ranking Police Officials of CICA Member/Observer Countries.
In addition, two high level senior officials from law enforcement or related departments of UN, OSCE and League of Arab States are also welcomed to the said event.
Please bear in mind that the delegates are welcomed and encouraged to volunteer for chairing the thematic sessions or making presentations under each topic. The due date for chairmanship candidacy and abstracts of presentations is April 30th, 2010. The timely briefing of the meeting secretariat is very essential for the participants who may be interested in to convey presentation in the meeting or undertake chairmanship of the interested Session.
IV- Agenda
Turkey believes that the new challenges and threats identified by CICA Member States are cross cutting in nature and not easily compartmentalized. Therefore, a broader and more flexible thematic agenda which allows these multifaceted issues to be addressed in their various manifestations is required. In order to fulfill this purpose, while at the same time achieving greater coherence and focus, Turkey proposes four thematic headings:
1. Terrorism
2. Trafficking issues
3. Police related issues
4. Border control and management issues
The above breakdown into four broad thematic headings will also allow work on the issue of illegal narcotics trafficking, currently being pursued on a separate track independently by Iran to be integrated into the whole once it also reaches a certain level of maturity.
In this vein, the CICA Chiefs of Police Meeting will be divided into four sessions over two days.
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