Print
See related documents
Resolution 2211 (2018)
Funding of the terrorist group Daesh: lessons learned
1. The Parliamentary Assembly continues
to be concerned about the threat posed by terrorist organisations
such as Daesh to peace and stability in the Middle East, even if
the plan by Daesh to create a caliphate in Syria and in Iraq has
failed, thanks mainly to military action by Iraqi and Syrian, including
Kurdish, fighters, supported by the international community.
2. The Assembly warns that the military defeat of Daesh in Iraq
and Syria does not necessarily mean the end of this terrorist group,
as it will probably morph into something different. It is therefore
important to ensure that it will not be able to use the funding
sources it has used in the past. In addition, although some of these sources
are specific to Daesh, many can be – and are indeed – used by other
terrorist organisations.
3. Daesh operations have included terrorist attacks undertaken
within the Arab World, but also beyond. This organisation has claimed
responsibility for attacks in many countries around the world. While
these tragedies are sometimes the fruit of a more organised group-led
attack, often they are carried out by so-called “lone wolves” or
isolated individuals, who have been radicalised. One of the most
serious challenges to Europe and the United States is posed by these
individuals, especially foreign fighters coming home from Iraq and Syria
who are likely to revive underground networks in their countries.
The Assembly refers in this respect to its Resolution 2091 (2016) on foreign
fighters in Syria and Iraq.
4. The fight against Daesh has taught us that a terrorist group
driven by an extreme Islamist ideology can cause wholesale destruction
while capturing territory in which people can be enslaved and money
raised through the sale of national resources and extortion. The
money can also be exported to other fundamentalists around the world
sharing the same ideology, using or bypassing the existing global
financial system.
5. The foundation underpinning Islamist terrorism, and its funding,
is the extreme ideology which drives adherence to the terrorist
cause. There therefore needs to be a global initiative to root out
extremism and religious intolerance.
6. The Assembly welcomes the resolutions taken and implemented
by member States and international bodies aimed at tackling the
financing of terrorism. In particular, the Assembly hopes for the
swift and effective implementation of the Financial Action Task
Force (FATF) standards worldwide, specifically of the FATF Recommendations
on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism &
Proliferation. These should be used by member States to cut off
flows of funds and financial and economic assets of individuals and
entities on the Daesh and Al-Qaida Sanctions List, as underlined
by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2253.
7. The Assembly also appreciates the decision taken by the FATF
to broaden its geographic representation and global engagement to
counter terrorism financing. Indeed, terrorism (and likewise Daesh
itself) is a fluid, transnational phenomenon which affects every
different part of the world. International bodies and organisations
should thus keep their doors open to any new member who wishes to
implement legal and financial tools to stop the financing of terrorism.
Most importantly, however, they should provide support and advice
to developing countries, which often lack the resources and have
strategic deficiencies when it comes to effectively tackling terrorism.
8. Effective financial operations are indispensable when it comes
to stopping terrorist organisations such as Daesh. National (and
international) bodies such as the financial intelligence units can
be particularly helpful in identifying terrorist networks and their
financial backers, and should thus continue to be supported and
used by member States. Collective law-enforcement channels such
as Interpol and Europol should also be used more by member States,
especially in order to prosecute and penalise foreign terrorist
fighters and anyone providing material support to Daesh.
9. The Assembly acknowledges the work done by the Council of
Europe in this field, namely by the Committee of Experts on the
Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of
Terrorism (MONEYVAL) and the Committee of Experts on Terrorism (CODEXTER).
10. The Assembly also recalls the important help provided by the
European Union-United States Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme
(TFTP) with regard to leads in tracking financial networks and channels
of terrorist organisations, and thus calls on member States to use
the programme more proactively.
11. The way in which international terrorist organisations such
as Daesh finance their operations around the world can only be tackled
by countries acting in concert against such activity; and by employing
a comprehensive strategy involving a number of measures focusing
on international co-operation and preventive measures, including
military action where appropriate. The challenge is also to share
among international organisations financial information which will
be able to disrupt and ultimately stop terrorist activity.
12. Therefore, the Assembly calls on member States to:
12.1. prevent or stop, in any way
possible, all financial sources, techniques and channels supporting Daesh
and other terrorist organisations, including extortion, taxation,
exploitation of natural resources, smuggling of antiquities, drug
trafficking, bank looting, looting of civilians and cultural property,
external donations and kidnapping for ransom;
12.2. continue to promote and support research on the sources
and channels of funding of terrorism, in order to remain up to date
on new alternative sources of financing, such as virtual currencies;
12.3. engage in and develop collaboration and co-operation efforts
across borders and with international bodies and institutions in
order to promote a more transparent, efficient and rapid exchange of
information and intelligence;
12.4. intensify capacity building and technical assistance in
relation to terrorism financing hotspots, as set out in the Action
Plan on Countering Terrorism drafted by the G20 member States;
12.5. reaffirm the need to build local capability to investigate
and counter terrorist financing, including corruption;
12.6. study and develop new technologies, in order to better
track, monitor and eventually shut down channels of terrorist financing,
and assess whether virtual and crypto currencies and block chain
and financial technologies (fintech) help to fund terrorism and
should be regulated in a co-ordinated way;
12.7. improve the effective implementation of the international
standards of transparency, as set out in the United Nations and
FATF recommendations;
12.8. sign and ratify, if they have not already done so, the
Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and
Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism
(CETS No. 198). It notes in this respect that Andorra, the Czech
Republic, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland have not
signed it, while Austria, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania,
Luxembourg and Monaco have signed but not ratified it;
12.9. adopt such initiatives as the United Kingdom’s Joint Money
Laundering Intelligence Taskforce to facilitate greater intelligence
sharing on terrorist financing;
12.10. develop, following the example of France, updated national
guidelines, based on international standards, providing concrete
advice to businesses and people whose sectors have been listed among the
sources of Daesh’s financing;
12.11. consider banning new business relationships with banks
in Syria. Due diligence is needed concerning financial transfers
and transactions in Iraq, Syria and Libya, as well as in the border
regions of these countries;
12.12. oblige banks to monitor prepaid debit cards, so as to
ensure that they can only be reloaded via bank transfers and personally
identifiable accounts;
12.13. establish a second layer of security that vets the names
of clans/tribes at airports or land borders, taking into account
the increasing number of refugees and diaspora in Europe from Syria
and North Africa;
12.14. work across government departments and agencies to better
co-ordinate action against the funding of terrorism;
12.15. pay close attention to the ability of lone-wolf operatives,
inspired by extreme ideological beliefs, to raise money by, for
example, using welfare payments or prepaid debit cards to undertake
acts of terrorism.
13. Finally, the Assembly calls on the member States of the European
Union to implement the proposals made in the 2016 Action Plan for
Strengthening the Fight against Terrorist Financing, and in particular
to bring virtual currency exchange platforms under the supervision
of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive; revise the prohibition of
centralised registers providing all bank accounts belonging to one
person; extend the scope of the financial intelligence units; and
improve the efficiency of freezing measures based on the United
States listings.