On 21 November 2024, Her Excellency Liliana Alcaraz, President Pro Tempore of the Financial Action Task Force of Latin America (GAFILAT) and Mr. Esteban Fullin, GAFILAT’s Executive Secretary, briefed the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) on the recent work of GAFILAT as it pertains to supporting Member States in Latin America to improve effective implementation of counter-terrorism financing measures. GAFILAT’s delegation also included its Vice-President Pro Tempore, Mr. Juan Carlos Monroy from Guatemala. Several partners of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact attended the briefing as observers.
As the Security Council has acknowledged in several of its resolutions, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and its global network of FATF-style regional bodies (FSRBs) play an essential role in setting global standards for preventing terrorist financing, as well as in working with Member States to address deficiencies in this regard.
For the briefing, GAFILAT representatives elaborated on recent efforts to support Member States counter the financing of terrorism in the region, including as they pertain to developing (i) sectorial risk evaluations for non-profit organizations (NPOs); (ii) a tool to help Designated Non-Financial Business and Professions to have access to ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida sanctions lists; and (iii) simulation exercises to test Member States’ asset-freezing mechanisms.
Following the briefing, Assistant Secretary-General Natalia Gherman, Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), reiterated CTED's appreciation to GAFILAT for its active engagement with the CTC and CTED and the support it provides to the region to promote good practices and contribute to the effective implementation of relevant international obligations and standards to counter terrorism financing. The Executive Director recognized that GAFILAT’s upcoming analysis on countering the financing of terrorism threats and vulnerabilities of virtual assets service providers in the region will be complementary to CTED’s work on identification of latest trends and shifts in the use of different types of virtual assets by terrorist groups affiliated with Da’esh / Al-Qaida and their supporters, including for their fundraising campaigns.
Members of the Committee expressed their appreciation for the briefing provided by GAFILAT, noting that this briefing constituted a good practice.