Motion for a resolution | Doc. 13976 | 04 February 2016
Funding of the terrorist group Daesh
The Parliamentary Assembly has discussed at length the threat of Daesh to peace and stability in the Middle East. Defeating Daesh means defeating its ideology, dissuading foreign fighters from joining Daesh and cutting off funding to the terrorist group. We must stand united in defence of the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5).
The Council of Europe has taken a leadership role in countering terrorism; agreeing the Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism (2005); the Additional Protocol to the Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism (2015), and publishing the action plan on the fight against violent extremism and radicalisation leading to terrorism (2015), to strengthen the Council of Europe’s pan-European membership, strengthen its legal instruments, and improve its monitoring, advisory bodies and its practical tools.
To defeat Daesh we need to take all practical steps to do so, including cutting off financial support of Daesh. This would undermine its ability to function and pay foreign fighters including those from member States of the Council of Europe, and ultimately put an end to Daesh’s ability to create a self-sufficient State which it would claim to be an Islamic caliphate. The need for this was made clear in paragraph 13 of Assembly Resolution 2090 (2016) on Combating international terrorism while protecting Council of Europe standards and values.
Given the urgency and significance of the need to cut off the finances of Daesh, the Assembly should evaluate the different means of funding to Daesh; discern what the member States are currently doing to prevent funding to Daesh; evaluate the effectiveness of different strategies of curtailing funding and make recommendations to ensure every member State can deploy the most effective way of curtailing funding to Daesh, without which it could not function.