28th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe – 24-26 March 2015

The fight against terrorism: a local challenge

Towns and cities have a key role to play in the fight against terrorism by combating stereotyping and exclusion, fostering integration and encouraging all citizens to participate in the life of the community. They should share their experiences amongst themselves.  In an urgent debate on “Cities and towns against terrorism” held on Wednesday 25 March 2015 during the 28th Session of the Congress, the Chamber of Local Authorities reviewed the issue and assessed the internal and external threats facing towns and cities.   

In his statement to the Chamber of Local Authorities, Guilherme Pinto, President of the European Forum for Urban Security (EFUS), stressed that “it is at the heart of cities that the best responses to terrorism will be found, because the city has remained a place of trust between elected representatives and citizens”. Mr Pinto added that “today’s terrorism is not the same as in the past, just as today’s terrorists are not simply foreigners as they were in the past, but citizens who live in our midst”. He put the emphasis on prevention, saying that “where crime is concerned, preventive policies are more effective and less costly”. Calling on towns and cities to form networks against terrorism, he said that “the Congress has a duty to encourage towns and cities to share their experience of combating terrorism”. The EFUS President also called on local authorities to make citizen participation “a cross-cutting principle of security policies” by involving civil society in the whole policy-making process.  

Some participants in the debate drew attention to “the danger of stereotyping all Muslims as terrorists”. They also stressed that the persistence of conflicts in the Middle East, and especially in Syria, could have dramatic consequences for all the countries of Europe.

Mustapha Abdi, Mayor of Kobane, a Syrian town inhabited by Kurds on the border with Turkey, took the floor during the debate. He described the attacks launched against the town for several months in 2014 by Islamic State. Adding that his town had become the “world capital of resistance to Daesh”, Mr Abdi said that Kobane was “in ruins and incapable of providing its inhabitants with basic services, such as drinking water, food and medicine”.  Noting that 70% of the town had been destroyed in the attacks, Mr Abdi called on the Congress to visit Kobane to assess the situation at first hand.  

Describing Kobane as a “symbol of the fight against barbarity”, members of the French delegation to the Congress announced an initiative by their national delegation, which would be calling on French local authorities to provide aid to Kobane. They were followed in this by other national delegations, which, together with the Mayor of Kobane, identified the type of aid they could most usefully provide to the city.

In a Declaration adopted the following day, the Bureau of the Congress deplored the “the devastation of the Kobane area and the very difficult situation of the population, which currently has no access to electricity, water supply and sanitation, nor to sufficient food or other every day basic services.” The Bureau called on all member states and international partners to “step up their support to UN agencies and to Syria’s neighbouring countries by extending humanitarian assistance to the Syrian population”.

Acknowledging the important role which Turkey, as a Council of Europe member state, has played and continues to play in providing shelter to numerous Syrian refugees on Turkish territory and in providing humanitarian aid to the Syrian population, in particular through various corridors established along the border, the Bureau called on the Turkish authorities to “keep their border open with a permanent and safe corridor, and to allow free passage of all consignments of medicine and medical supplies as well as of essential foodstuffs, clothing and tonics for the civilian population, and to make free movement legally possible for the inhabitants of the region”.