E-launch of the UNODC Counter-Terrorism Learning Platform

On 21 April the e-launch of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s Counter Terrorism Learning Platform (CTLP) took place. Two projects financed by the Instrument for contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) made a substantial direct contribution to the establishment of the Platform. Hilde Hardeman, Head of Service of the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments, represented the European Commission at its e-launch on Tuesday.

The EU and UNODC have been continuously committed to providing criminal justice officials with the tools needed to tackle issues related to gathering electronic evidence and terrorist use of the Internet. These functions have become more crucial than ever with the challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic is providing an opportunity, which extremist groups might exploit, whilst authorities such as the UNODC have encountered hindrances to their legislative and technical assistance activities due to the restrictions prompted by the pandemic.

However, the newly launched CTLP aims to address and combat these challenges. It is an online interactive tool that allows for the delivery of numerous online legislative and technical assistance activities to a global audience of practitioners– ranging from one-hour webinars to multi-week online courses. To ensure the sustainability of training courses, a new online space was inaugurated on the platform specifically dedicated to electronic evidence matters. This online space will work as a secure interactive room, called the “iRoom”, developed to create an accessible learning platform for prosecutors, investigators and the judiciary in cross-border terrorism and organised crime cases involving electronic evidence.

On 21 April, UNODC convened the first online meeting on the newly established iRoom. Key representatives of 10 international organisations as well as high-level delegates in the area of law enforcement /criminal justice were connected in the iRoom and further conceptualised the new training module.

The CTLP project has been funded by the European Union and jointly implemented with INTERPOL.

Read the full story at the UNODC website.