27 September 2001

U.S. Statement to OSCE on Working Group on Terrorism

The following statement on the OSCE's Working Group on Terrorism was delivered to the Permanent Council September 27 by Ambassador David T. Johnson, head of the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the United States welcomes your announcement to establish this Working Group on Terrorism under the terms you just announced. We intend to be active and constructive participants.

We agree that the group's immediate task is to develop a plan of action for the OSCE to be adopted not later than our Ministerial.

We believe that the Working Group should coordinate work done on terrorism by the various OSCE structures and institutions. We would expect the Secretariat, the FSC, and other OSCE bodies to provide advice and assistance to the group. As we said in yesterday's meeting of the FSC, we believe an important initial step would be for the Forum to carry out a rapid review of existing OSCE commitments related to terrorism and their implementation and provide that assessment to the Working Group and to you, Mr. Chairman.

We hope the Working Group will look carefully at some of the areas that have been identified for further OSCE action, including:

- how we might examine national legislation and provide advice on how it might be strengthened;

- sharing information on how we can best carry out the commitments we have made, among other places at the UN;

- how we can ensure that all OSCE States sign onto international conventions relevant to the fight against terrorism, including those conventions on human rights and implement them; and

- how we might broaden to 55 what many of us have agreed in smaller groups, including within the G-8 and the European Union.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.