High Level International Conference “Preventing and Countering Terrorism in the Digital Age” will take place in Minsk

11-09-2018

On October 9-10, 2018 Minsk will host its first High Level International Conference “Preventing and Countering Terrorism in the Digital Age”, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The conference will take stock of developments of the actions against terrorism and the financing of terrorism by OSCE participating States and OSCE Partners for Co-operation and more concretely provide an opportunity to exchange national experiences and perspectives on recent trends and measures with regard to strategic areas. 

A key feature of the event is its content, which is at the junction of the two most pressing challenges of our time: the fight against terrorism and cybersecurity.

The conference is positioned as a unifying event of a wide format. The head of the OSCE, the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Directorate, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime will visit Belarus for the first time. The forum will be attended by the high-level representatives of the OSCE participating states and partner countries, the head of the CIS and CSTO, representatives of business community, analytical agencies.

The agenda of the conference includes sessions on the following topics: implementing the OSCE framework against terrorism in the digital age; preventing and countering terrorism online: the importance of public private partnerships; protecting critical infrastructure against terrorist attacks emanating from cyberspace.

Special attention will be paid to the fight against terrorism in the online segment. The wide-spread exploitation of the Internet and social media platforms by terrorists poses serious challenges to States, national institutions, the media, the private sector and civil society. But the Internet as a communication channel also plays an important role in preventing and countering terrorism, including the financing of terrorism. Therefore, the Internet component will be the overarching focus in discussions.

The holding of the conference in Minsk is another practical step, confirming the consistent position of Belarus in strengthening international cooperation in areas of unifying potential, such as countering terrorism and cyber security.

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