Background
The adoption of Security Council Resolution 2178 (2014), at a high-level meeting of the Security Council chaired by U.S. President Barack Obama in September 2014 brought the issue of Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs) to the forefront of the international agenda.
With this resolution, the international community stressed the urgent need to fully and immediately undertake measures with respect to FTFs and particularly those associated with the Islamic State, Al Nusra Front as well as other groups affiliated with Al-Qaida. It recognized that the underlying factors must also be addressed in a comprehensive manner, including by preventing radicalization, stemming recruitment of FTFs, inhibiting FTFs’ travel and disrupting their financial support.
The resolution was adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, which means that it is legally binding for all 193 Member States.
On 29 May 2015, the Security Council issued Presidential Statement S/PRST/2015/11 encouraging the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force Office (CTITF) in the Department of Political Affairs to develop, in close consultation with the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and the Al-Qaida Monitoring Team, a capacity building implementation plan to assist Member States in complying with the resolution and stem the flow of FTFs.
Mandate
In order to coordinate UN collective efforts on the issue of Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs), the CTITF established an ad hoc Inter-Agency Working Group. This Working Group is in charge of operationalizing the implementation plan requested by the Security Council in Resolution 2178 (2014), setting out capacity building and technical assistance projects to be carried out over the next years in a coherent manner. Complementary and mutually reinforcing projects will be implemented through joint efforts or independently by the relevant CTITF entities, including United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT).
Entities
All entities of CTITF are part of the Working Group.