UN anti-terrorism conference to promote regional cooperation

An international counter-terrorism conference opened here on Thursday to discuss regional cooperation and the global counter-terrorism strategy. Organized by the UN Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) Office in partnership with the Swiss government, the conference is attended by more than 200 government officials, national counter-terrorism experts, representatives of the UN and practitioners from international, regional and civil society organizations. Jeffrey Feltman, UN Secretary-General for political affairs and chairman of the CTITF, said in his opening speech that the conference took place at a critical time in the international community's struggle against terrorism and extremism. "How do we ensure that we do not call into question the full respect of human rights when fighting terrorism?" Feltman told participants. The conference hopes to focus on issues such as translating the global resolve to counter-terrorism into practical cooperation at regional level and how to move beyond combating criminal aspects of terrorism and address its root causes more effectively. The conference will be wrapped up on Friday with an informal chair's summary that will help guide future counter-terrorism work, according to Feltman.