The Netherlands, Morocco and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) launched an Initiative on ‘Ensuring the Effective Implementation of Countering the Financing of Terrorism Measures While Safeguarding Civic Space’. The initiative will provide an inclusive platform for a diverse range of experts to share their perspectives, with an objective of strengthening dialogue and coordination among counterterrorism and CFT practitioners, the United Nations, government representatives, financial intelligence units, CSOs, humanitarian actors, and private sector, and supervisory authorities with CFT responsibilities on this topic.

The GCTF Co-Chairs, Canada and Morocco, hosted the Seventeenth GCTF Coordinating Committee Meeting in a virtual format on 29 September 2020. The Coordinating Committee took stock of the Forum’s progress since they last met in September 2019. Key decision points included the adoption of two GCTF Framework Documents, Memorandum on Good Practices on Strengthening National-Local Cooperation in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Conducive to Terrorism (Arabic, French) and the Addendum to The Hague Good Practices on the Nexus between Transnational Organized Crime and Terrorism: Focus on Criminal Justice (Arabic, French). Due to the ongoing global health crisis, the GCTF Ministerial Plenary Meeting was postponed and support for the work of the Forum was underlined in a Ministerial Declaration (Arabic, French).

The United States, lead of the Maritime Security and Terrorist Travel Initiative organized a series of Virtual Global Workshops on the Global Implications of Terrorist Travel in the Maritime Domain. The Virtual Global Workshops consisted of two webinars, covering the topics of the: 

• Role of International Law, and National Law and Policies, in Preventing, Countering, and Responding to Maritime Terrorist Travel
• Tools and Responses for Countering Maritime Terrorist Travel & Relevant Public and Private Bodies 

Co-Leads of the Watchlisting Initiative, the United Nations and the United States of America, organized a series of Virtual Consultations on the Legal, Policy, and Operational Implications of Watchlists. The webinars, held through the course of June and July, covered the following topics: 

• Definitions, Scopes, and Objectives of Terrorist Watchlists & Information Gathering;
• Legal Frameworks Regarding Terrorist Watchlists & Thresholds for Listings;
• Implementation of Watchlists and Independent Oversight & Information Management and Access.

GCTF Criminal Justice and Rule of Law (CJ-ROL) Working Group Co-Chairs, Nigeria and Switzerland, hosted two Review Meetings of the Initiative on Criminal Justice Responses to the Linkages between Terrorism, Transnational Organized Crimes and International Crimes, organized in the form of two webinars. The Review Meetings provided an opportunity to add input to the draft Addendum to The Hague Good Practices on the Nexus between Transnational Organized Crime and Terrorism: Focus on Criminal Justice.