The European Union co-sponsors the High-level International Conference on "International and Regional Cooperation on Countering Terrorism and its Financing Through Illicit Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime" to take place in Dushanbe on May 17, 2019.
The EU Delegation to Tajikistan organizes a side event to this Conference. The EU side event focuses on 'Reintegration of the families of foreign terrorist fighters'.
According to the EU Delegation to Tajikistan, recent developments in Syria and Iraq have sharpened the debate on relocating foreign terrorist fighters and international travel of terrorists. The EU is committed to ensuring implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2396. It is crucial to hold foreign terrorist fighters, both men and women, accountable for their actions and maximize the possibility of successful prosecution, in a manner consistent with applicable national and international law. As a global leader and a partner of the UN in implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, the EU invites the authorities and civil society to discuss this issue.
The EU stands ready to support capacity-building programs in third countries having to handle large numbers of returning terrorist fighters and their families, including children, youth and women. Such programs could for example support developing policies that aim at reintegrating people and at providing them access to basic services.
In Tajikistan the EU maintains a regular dialogue with the authorities on all issues pertaining to gender equality and protection of women and girls and makes it a crosscutting priority in bilateral development assistance programs funded by the European Commission.
The side event will be opened by Mr. Pedro Serrano, Deputy Secretary-General for Common Security and Defense Policy and Crisis Response, European External Action Service (EEAS).
On September 22, 2015, the European Commission and the European External Action Service adopted a new framework for the EU's activities on gender equality and women's empowerment in EU's external relations.
The new framework for the EU's activities on gender equality and women's empowerment in the EU's external relations for the 2016-2020, aims to support partner countries, especially in developing, enlargement and neighboring countries, to achieve tangible results towards gender equality which is at the core of European values, as well as the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Composed of 28 Member States, the European Union is the world’s largest aid donor. Tajikistan receives the main share of EU's bilateral assistance to Central Asia: €251 million for 2014-2020. During this period, the development cooperation between the EU and Tajikistan covers three key sectors: education – focusing on secondary general education and TVET, health – focusing on Primary Healthcare and Health Financing, and rural development – including support to agrarian reform, rural entrepreneurship, irrigation and water sector reform, as well as promoting natural resources management. The EU also supports reforms of the country's governance systems, trade policies and Public Finance Management.
Tajikistan also receives regional and thematic assistance in areas like border management, drug control, education, democracy and human rights, non-State actors, energy, transport, SME development, peace and stability, and water/environment/nuclear safety. The EU has been active in Tajikistan since 1992 and provides approximately EUR 35 million annually in development assistance in grants.
