UN, Algeria issue guidelines to tackle terrorist financial technologies

At the UN Security Council meeting on ‘Strengthening African Leadership and Implementing Counter-Terrorism’ on 21 January 2025, Algerian Minister of State Ahmed Attaf presented to the Assembly the recently adopted non-binding Guiding Principles for Member States on preventing, detecting and disrupting the use of new and emerging financial technologies for terrorist purposes (the Algerian Guiding Principles). This presentation was delivered as part of the open debate on ‘Africa-led and development-focused counter-terrorism: Strengthening African Leadership and Implementing Counter-Terrorism’ at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The adoption of these principles by the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee is intended to address the use of new financial technologies and innovations for terrorist purposes. The principles outlined are designed to assist Member States in enhancing their comprehension of the terrorist financing risks associated with emerging financial technologies and fundraising methods. They also aspire to facilitate the development and implementation of risk-based regulations, improve monitoring and supervision to prevent the exploitation of new technologies for terrorist financing, effectively detect and halt such abuses, and assess the impact and potential unintended consequences of new measures to counter terrorist financing related to new technologies.