OSCE and UNODC support North Macedonia in preventing terrorist financing through targeted financial sanctions

A three-day training course on strengthening North Macedonia’s capacity to implement targeted financial sanction regimes concluded today in Veles, North Macedonia. The training was jointly organized by the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with the support of the OSCE Mission to Skopje.

The course brought together twenty-two participants from nine different agencies of North Macedonia involved in the countering of terrorist financing, including the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Customs Administration, Financial Police Office, Intelligence Agency, Ministry of Justice, Financial Intelligence Office, Agency for National Security, and National Coordinator’s Office for Countering Violent Extremism and Countering Terrorism.

Sessions focused on the opportunities the sanction regime pursuant to UN Security Council Resolutions 1267 present as a disruption tool, procedures derived from it, and let participants engage in exercises to use sanctions effectively through inter-agency co-operation. An expert from the UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team concerning ISIL (Da'esh), Al-Qaida and the Taliban and associated individuals and entities presented the role of the Monitoring Team, the threat picture and a case study.

Mr. Zlatko Arsov, Deputy National Coordinator for Countering Violent Extremism and Countering Terrorism, highlighted in his opening remarks the need to foster regional and international co-operation in countering terrorism and thanked the OSCE for the support in organizing this series of training courses and more broadly for its support in drafting National Strategies on Countering Terrorism and Countering Violent Extremism.

This was the final course in the framework of the progressive training programme on countering the financing of terrorism, jointly implemented by the OSCE and UNODC since 2021 in North Macedonia and organized with the financial support of the United States. The programme included five tailored training modules for officials from North Macedonia, delivered by local trainers. It aimed to support further compliance with OSCE commitments and international standards in the field of countering the financing of terrorism. The OSCE Mission to Skopje will ensure follow-up support to the national agencies responsible for countering terrorism.