At the occasion of the Review of the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy, and the one year anniversary of the UN Security Council Counter Terrorism Committee’s High Level Meeting in Madrid, during which the Madrid Guiding Principles on stemming the flow of Foreign Terrorist Fighters were developed, the Permanent Missions of Spain and New Zealand hosted a Side Event on foreign terrorist fighters focused on prosecution, rehabilitation, and reintegration challenges.

Opening remarks were made by the Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) Jean-Paul Laborde. Other speakers included i.a. representatives of Spain, New Zealand, Italy, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Dr. Bibi van Ginkel, Senior Researcher of Clingendael Institute and Research Fellow of the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) gave a presentation on the role that the military can potentially play as first responders after terrorist attacks in evidence collection.