OSCE and UNODC train participants from Kazakhstan on the use of targeted financial sanctions to disrupt terrorist networks

Strengthening the capacity of government officials from Kazakhstan to counter terrorism financing was the aim of an online training course. The event was organized by the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, the OSCE Programme Office in Nur-Sultan, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Programme against Money Laundering (UNODC/GPML), the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia and the Monitoring Team of the UN Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) concerning ISIL (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals, groups undertakings and entities.

Fourteen participants from governmental agencies of Kazakhstan, such as the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Academy of Law Enforcement Agencies under the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market, the Financial Monitoring Committee of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Internal Affairs and other law enforcement agencies took part in the training course.

The training course focused on applying targeted financial sanctions to terrorists and terrorist organizations, pursuant to UN Security Council resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1988 (2011), to disrupt terrorist networks. During the course, participants were actively engaged through a range of interactive exercises and knowledge tests.

The event aimed at enhancing the capacity of Kazakhstan to combat terrorist financing and strengthen compliance with international standards in this area. In particular, UN Security Council Resolutions, the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF)’s standards, UN norms and OSCE commitments to promote human rights-based approaches in countering terrorist financing.

The course is part of an OSCE-UNODC comprehensive capacity-building programme on countering terrorist financing for Central Asia. It helped the participants to understand the key role of inter-agency co-operation, international co-operation and of multi-stakeholders approaches in identifying and disrupting terrorist financial networks.