2019 ‘No Money for Terror’ Ministerial Conference
The second annual ‘No Money for Terror’ Ministerial conference was hosted by the Hon Peter Dutton, Minister of Home Affairs of the Australian government, in Melbourne, Australia on 7 and 8 November 2019.
The two-day conference held a number of focused sessions on emerging terrorist threats, kidnapping for ransom as a form of terrorist financing, new technologies and the exploitation of not-for-profit organizations. Delegates also discussed at length effective measures needed to combat these threats including enhancing public-private partnerships.
65 delegations attended the event and built on the successes of the first annual conference hosted by President Macron in Paris, France last year. In opening the conference Minister Dutton stated that:
“According to the most recent Global Terrorism Index, in 2017 the global economic impact of terrorism was estimated at fifty-two billion U.S. dollars... The increasing use of digital and cryptocurrencies, stored value cards, online payment systems and crowdfunding platforms provide new channels through which terrorism may be financed. The anonymity afforded by such technologies, with the overlay of the darkweb, enables terrorist financers to obfuscate their activities and they can camouflage their nefarious dealings within legitimate networks of commerce and cross-border transactions.
As technologies develop and virtual assets proliferate, there will be a growing appeal to use online transactions and cryptocurrencies for financing terrorism. This is a risk we must stay ahead of.”
The Chair's statement from the 2019 Ministerial Conference is available at the following link:
http://www.apgml.org/includes/handlers/get-document.ashx?d=deb6b074-e4f4-4f43-abfe-c9a67dc18291
Next year’s conference will be convened in India.
