Inside ASEAN Column

Column:       Inside ASEAN
Written by:     Inter-Parliamentary Union Group, Bureau of Inter-Parliamentary Organization,
the Secretariat of the House of Representatives
Translated by: English Group, Bureau of Foreign Languages, the Secretariat of the Senate

IPU-UN Regional Conference
“The Role of Parliamentarians in Preventing and Countering Terrorism and Addressing Conditions Conducive to Terrorism in the Asia-Pacific Region”

The delegation of the Thai Parliament, consisting of Mr. Anwar Salaeh, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Commerce and Intellectual Property, and General Surapong Suwana-Adth, Second Vice-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, along with Mr. Anusart Suwanmongkol, Member of Senate and IPU Committee on Peace and International Security, attended the IPU-UN Regional Conference “The Role of Parliamentarians in Preventing and Countering Terrorism and Addressing Conditions Conducive to Terrorism in the Asia-Pacific Region”. This conference was organized by Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), United Nations (UN) and the Parliament of Malaysia during 1 – 3 October 2019 at the Majestic Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The summary of the conference is as follows.

On 1 October 2019, at 10.00 hours, the delegation of the Thai Parliament together with parliamentary representatives from more than 15 member countries of IPU in the Asia-Pacific Geopolitical Group attended the opening ceremony. Mr. Nga Kor Ming, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of Malaysia, delivered the opening speech and was followed by statements delivered by 4 representatives from IPU and UN.

At 12.00 hours, the delegation of the Thai Parliament attended the 1^st session and heard the synopsis of the terrorist situation in the Asia-Pacific region delivered by the Assistant Commission-General on Anti-Terrorism of the Royal Malaysia Police.

At 14.30 hours, the delegation of the Thai Parliament attended the 2^nd session and heard statements by representatives of the Counter-Terrorism Committee under the United Nations Security Council and the Royal Malaysia Police on the topic “Recent Developments in the International Counter-Terrorism Legal Framework, the Need for National Updates, and Existing Regional Strategy and Mechanism”.

At 16.30 hours, the delegation of the Thai Parliament attended the 3^rd session and heard a proposal of a Joint Programme between IPU, United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) regarding the creation of a legal database on counter-terrorism in foreign countries.

At 20.00 hours, Le Meridien Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, the delegation of the Thai Parliament attended the dinner reception as honourary guests in the conference hosted by Mr. Nga Kor Ming, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of Malaysia.

On 2 October 2019, at 09.00 hours, the delegation of the Thai Parliament attended the 4^th session and heard a statement on strengthening border security and management under the framework of international cooperation delivered by a representative from the project under UNOCT at New York. Furthermore, the delegation heard a statement by a representative from UN Countering Terrorist Travel Programme, which is a cooperation that involves every parties to investigate and watch out for terrorists that cross the borders, especially through aviation methods that utilizes both the Advance Passenger Information (API) and Passenger Name Record (PNR) system.

At 11.15 hours, the delegation of the Thai Parliament attended the 5^th session and heard a statement under the topic “Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTF): Prosecution, Radicalization in Prisons Settings, Rehabilitation and Reintegration” delivered by representatives from the Counter-Terrorism Committee under the United Nations Security Council, the UNODC to Indonesia and the Malaysian Prison Department.

At 15.00 hours, the delegation of the Thai Parliament attended the 6^th session under the topic “Support to Victims of Terrorism” and heard statements delivered by a specialist on victimology from the Australian Institute of Criminology and a representative of Survivor Foundation Indonesia. This foundation is a civil society organization that has been established by victims of the detonation at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta with the goal to promote justice and help victims from terrorism in Indonesia.

At 17.00 hours, the delegation of the Thai Parliament attended the 7^th session and heard statements from representatives of UN Women and UNODC on the topic “Empower Women and Youth to Build Resilient, Cohesive and Peaceful Communities”.

On 3 October 2019, at 09.00 hours, the delegation of the Thai Parliament attended the 8^th session on the topic “Terrorist Radicalization and Recruitment: the Role of Culture and Media in Prevention and Awareness Measures” and heard statements from an expert of UNODC on the dissemination of radical idea narratives through social media to recruit partisans to join the terrorist group. The delegation also heard a statement from the Member of Parliament of Egypt who is a technical specialist on religiology regarding the misuse of religious ideology and distortion of religious principles to recruit partisan for terrorist groups.

At 12.00 hours, the delegation of the Thai Parliament heard the summary and suggestions of the conference which will be documented as a final report. Furthermore, the delegation participated with parliamentary representatives from more than 15 member countries of IPU in the Asia-Pacific region to amend the aforementioned final report.

On this occasion, General Surapong Suwana-Adth, Member of the Senate and representative of the Thai parliament, mentioned the responsibility of the legislative branch to emphasize the UN Countering Terrorist Travel Programme and the necessity to support the government, being the administrative branch, to enter the aforementioned programme.

At the same time, Mr. Anusart Suwanamongkol, Member of the Senate, proposed to add the matter on the misuse of religious ideology and distortion of religious principles of terrorist groups to the report.

At 15.00 hours, the delegation of the Thai Parliament visited the Parliament of Malaysia together with participants in this conference who have been invited by the host of this conference, the Parliament of Malaysia. All participants had a tour with a guide from the Parliament of Malaysia who gave a briefing on the structure and power and responsibilities of the Parliament of Malaysia (Parlimen Malaysia), consisting of the House of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat) and the Senate (Dewan Negara).

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