United Nations Workshop for Civil Aviation Security: National Intelligence-Based Approaches to Aviation Security
The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) through its Programme on Threat Assessment Models for Aviation Security (“TAM Programme”), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL) - Air Traffic Management Security Coordinating Group (NEASCOG) jointly hosted a two-day workshop on 15-16 March 2023 at EUROCONTROL Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
During the two-day workshop, participants exchanged best practices to produce actionable threat information in the context of civil aviation security risk management.
Through a tabletop exercise, NEASCOG practitioners also shared operational experiences on effective interagency coordination and methods to identify, prevent and counter threats to aviation.
A repository of best practices and tools for future TAM Programme partners and beneficiaries will be developed on the basis of the contributions to the workshop.
The workshop builds on the robust cooperation of UNOCT with NATO and EUROCONTROL counterparts on preventing and countering aviation terrorism since the TAM Programme’s launch in 2020.
The TAM Programme supports Member States in establishing a risk-based approach to aviation security by strengthening national interagency cooperation on threat information, as called for by Security Council resolution 2309 (2016) and in line with the Seventh review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy of June 2021.
Concretely, the TAM Programme enables participating Member States to:
- establish a common approach to threat assessment and risk analysis;
- strengthen interagency coordination on relevant threat information; and
- improve compliance capacity with international counter-terrorism and aviation security standards and obligations. Effective and comprehensive interagency coordination on real-time threats between national security and civil aviation security authorities enables Member States to efficiently address the ever-evolving threats to civil aviation infrastructure.
During his closing remarks, Dr. Raffi Gregorian, Director and Deputy to the Under-Secretary-General at UNOCT concluded: ‘’Since we launched the TAM Programme in 2020, we have benefited from excellent cooperation with NATO and EUROCONTROL via the NEASCOG framework. Our discussions over the last two days serves as a concrete demonstration on how we can and should work together to prevent and counter threats to aviation. The global aviation ecosystem is interconnected, dynamic, and far more complex than many working outside of aviation can even begin to contemplate. When we begin to consider the aviation network against our current threat environment, these complexities multiply. So how can we protect our air operations? We must make sure that all those with a role to play – from military to national security personnel to those working in civil aviation are all working together in a precise and tightly coordinated fashion’’.
The TAM Programme is currently supporting beneficiary Member States in Africa and Southeast Asia. Led by UNOCT, the TAM Programme is implemented in close partnership with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS). It also integrates substantive expertise from the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).