On 8 October 2018, the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) of the Security Council adopted updated guidelines on substance and procedure. With the purpose of streamlining and enhancing its work, the Committee＊s updated guidelines will shorten the time frames for drafting and reviewing country assessment reports.
In terms of substance, these guidelines establish a new document called Preliminary assessment and observations (PAO) that will be replacing the earlier preliminary conclusions and overview, and will include an analysis of the terrorism threat, trends, concerns, risks, and challenges; the identification and evaluation of Member States＊ progress, strengths, shortfalls, and effective and good experiences and practices; and comments and recommendations for technical assistance. The guidelines also state that any visit by the Counter-Terrorism Committee should be planned and conducted in a manner that allows the visiting delegation to discuss its key factual findings, observations, and recommendations, as well as to seek the State＊s agreement to the prioritized technical assistance needs, during the visit. The updated guidelines further establish four types of visit report: (i) comprehensive; (ii) focused or regional; (iii) follow-up; and (iv) advocacy.
On procedure, the guidelines refer to an annex, according to which the time frames are shortened as follows: Visited Member States should be given 30 days to submit their factual observations on the draft visit report, as well as information concerning any new developments; once the visit report has been adopted by the Committee, the visited State should submit its response on steps taken to implement the recommendations contained in the report within six months of receipt of the final report.
The new guidelines encourage Member States to make greater use of electronic means of communication to submit their responses on the PAO and/or the draft visit report, and CTC/CTED to involve UN Resident Coordinators and other UN entities concerned in its country visits.
The complete updated guidelines can be accessed here.