Investigation tools and skills to effectively counter terrorist financing focus of OSCE and UN Office on Drugs and Crime training course in Tajikistan

A five-day training course aimed at further strengthening the capacity of Tajikistan to counter terrorist financing was organized from 25 to 29 June 2019 in Khujand, Tajikistan.

Eighteen experts and practitioners from the headquarters of the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Financial Monitoring Department of the National Bank of Tajikistan, the Ministry of the Interior, and the State Committee for National Security of the Republic of Tajikistan participated in the event.

The course was organized by the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, in co-operation with the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe, 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 Tajikistan’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.

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, 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.

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.