OSCE and UN Office on Drugs and Crime deliver training course in Kazakhstan on investigation tools and skills to effectively counter terrorist financing

A five-day training course aimed at further strengthening the capacity of Kazakhstan to counter terrorist financing was organized in Burabay, Kazakhstan, from 11 to 15 June 2019. The training seminar was delivered to participants from the capital and from the country’s Akmola, Aktobe and Karaganda regions.

The course was organized by the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, in co-operation with the OSCE Programme Office in Nur-sultan, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s Global Programme against Money Laundering and in partnership with the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism (EAG).

The training course was conducted to strengthen Kazakhstan’s compliance with international standards, in particular UN Security Council Resolutions, especially the recently adopted UN Security Council Resolution 2462 (2019), the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF)’s standards and OSCE commitments. It was led by international experts together with four local government officials. Prior to the seminar the officials completed the train-the-trainers course provided by the OSCE, UNODC and the EAG.

The seminar emphasized the key role of inter-agency co-operation in investigating and disrupting terrorist financing. Based on country- and region-specific scenarios, it included sessions on the role of the Financial Intelligence Unit and of financial investigation, creating financial profiles, sources of information and suspicious transaction reports, risk of abuse of non-profit organizations for terrorist financing,  new methods of payments, addressing challenges related to Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs), seizure and management of exhibits. More than half of the course was devoted to practical work on exercises highlighting specific instruments and techniques that play an important role in countering the financing of terrorism.

Sixteen experts and practitioners from the Committee for Financial Monitoring, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Counter Terrorism Center of the National Security Committee, the Academy of Law Enforcement Agencies under the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and the State Revenues Committee participated in the event.

The OSCE organized the course with the financial support of Germany, as part of a comprehensive multi-annual capacity-building programme to support national efforts to counter terrorist financing in Central Asia.