The primary responsibility for preventing and countering terrorism, as well as for managing the consequences of terrorist acts, rests with states. However, given the nature and scale of today's constantly evolving terrorist threat, states alone cannot successfully counter terrorism without the deployment of all elements of national power, drawing on the business community and civil society as a whole.

The international community recognizes the importance of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in countering terrorism. The United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy encourages PPPs and the G8 has launched a "Global Forum for Partnerships between States and Businesses to Counter Terrorism" (Moscow, November 2006), which resulted in the G8 Strategy for Partnerships between States and Businesses to Counter Terrorism.

Likewise, the OSCE strives to involve the private sector as much as possible in its counter-terrorism activities and to develop and promote PPPs, in particular with regard to enhancing travel document security, protecting critical infrastructures against terrorist attacks, combating the use of the Internet for terrorist purposes, preventing violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism, countering terrorism financing as well as protecting and promoting human rights in the fight against terrorism.

In order to further explore the potential of such co-operation, to identify existing gaps and best practices, the OSCE organized a high-level political conference on PPPs with the theme "Partnership of State Authorities, Civil Society and the Business Community in Combating Terrorism", an initiative of the United States of America and the Russian Federation. The conference was held in Vienna on 31 May and 1 June 2007 thanks to generous extra-budgetary contributions from the then OSCE Spanish Chairmanship and the United States.

As a result of this conference, OSCE participating States adopted at their 2007 Ministerial Council in Madrid a decision on Public-Private Partnerships in Countering Terrorism, which acknowledges the usefulness of joint counter-terrorist efforts by government bodies and the private sector (civil society and the business community) in the form of voluntary co-operation, based upon the principles of partnership and mutual trust, in order to provide better security and benefits to all parties.

On 15-16 September 2008, the OSCE organized a Follow-up OSCE PPP Conference in Vienna to consolidate the positive momentum achieved and to discuss opportunities and projects for public-private co-operation in specific fields, including PPPs with the media and civil society in countering violent extremism and radicalization, PPPs in protecting critical infrastructure and major events against terrorist attacks, as well as PPPs in countering the financing of terrorism.

The OSCE is now organizing thematic PPP workshops as well as sub-regional or national PPP workshops to further raise awareness, identify priority areas for partnerships, disseminate good practices and support networking. Such events have included:

• The "2008 Sub-Regional PPP Conference for Central Asia", organized on 4-5 November 2008 in Bishkek in partnership with the Government of the Kyrgyzstan;
• Two national PPP conferences for the Southern and Northern provinces of Kyrgyzstan, respectively held on 16 April 2009 in Osh and 13 August 2009 in Issik-Kul;
• An OSCE-wide "Public-Private Expert Workshop on Preventing the Abuse of Non-Profit Organizations for Terrorist Financing", held on 11 September 2009 in Vienna, in partnership with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Basel Institute on Governance and the United States;
• An OSCE-wide "Expert Workshop on Public-Private Partnerships: Engaging with the Media in Countering Terrorism", held on 19-20 October 2009 in Vienna;
• An OSCE-wide "Public-Private Expert Workshop on Protecting Non-Nuclear Critical Energy Infrastructure from Terrorist Attacks", held on 11-12 February 2010 in Vienna;
• A "Public-Private Expert Workshop for South Eastern Europe on Suppressing Terrorist Financing and Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism", held on 8-10 December 2010 in Sarajevo;
• An OSCE-wide "Workshop on Public-Private Partnerships to Enhance Tourism Security", held on 8-9 September 2011 in Vienna.

For more information, please contact the ATU directly.