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World economic crisis complicating challenges for security planning : UN expert

ABU DHABI – The world is undoubtedly facing a challenging era for security planning and decision making, complicated further by the recent global economic crisis, a UN official admitted.

“For this reason, the structural legacy of a major event is of greater significance in the current era. Major events can contribute vision and inspiration across a range of agendas and can create a structural legacy that can be sustained, and developed, over time,” David Veness, UN Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security, said through Video-message to the First Symposium “Security Measures and Technical Solutions for Major Events and Expanding Cities” organised yesterday by UAE Ministry of the Interior in cooperation with the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI).

The two-day event, which is being organised under the patronage of His Highness LT. General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of the Interior of the United Arab Emirates, was opened by Lt. General Saif Abdullah Al Shafaar, Undersecretary of Ministry of Interior.

“I would like to ensure, however, that the Symposium is receiving the highest attention from the United Nations here in New York, and I am pleased to lend my support to this initiative, even from afar,” he said.

“I warmly welcome the idea of looking at the use of technology to protect vulnerable targets and of approaching such a complex issue, beginning with potential applications for major events. Major events are indeed unique occasions to test new security practices, promote innovation and establish dialogue between different communities, such as end users and technology developers,”he indicated.

“Technology is increasingly important in the sphere of security planning. As those who seek to undermine our efforts become more sophisticated in their attempts, so must our preventative efforts become more sophisticated and innovative.

According to the UN top official, today Major Events present numerous attractive targets, which due to their nature are difficult to protect. For instance, large crowds of people, vast open spaces, multiple venues and the surrounding soft targets, not directly linked to the event, such as transportation systems, all present potential and vulnerable targets.

“Working together, with our collective experience, we can, via planning, dialogue and innovation, strive to develop security strategies to protect vulnerable targets well beyond the major event itself, ensuring a long term protection of relevant infrastructures and public places, “he affirmed.

“The capacity of a city to protect its citizens as it expands also needs to be considered. One of the aims of the Symposium will be to analyse to what extent innovations developed through the provision of security at major events can find applications in improving security in rapid growth cities.

“Major events may highlight areas where the security applications of technology can be improved and indicate areas where there is a need for technological research and development, the results of which can be applied in these contexts.

“At the United Nations, when ECOSOC adopted a resolution on UNICRI’s International Permanent Observatory on Major Events Security (IPO), perhaps we were not fully aware of all the potentialities, all the windows of opportunity that such a topic could offer in terms of developing new and more effective approaches to security.

“Today, after having successfully implemented various projects in preparation for major events of international interest, we now have more tangible evidence to consider major events as real laboratories of innovation in the security field.

“I therefore look forward to seeing my colleagues in UNICRI’s Security Governance/Counter-Terrorism Laboratory building a new branch of IPO with a focus on the dialogue between end users and technology developers, starting with this Symposium. As a UN entity, UNICRI and its Laboratory can already count on the active cooperation of public authorities from different Member States in this endeavour. I am confident that technology developers will also actively cooperate with UNICRI’s Laboratory in this new challenge.

“We are lucky today to have assembled a group of people with global representation and expertise in the technical and security planning fields. This is a marvellous base from which to launch this initiative on security measures and technical solutions for major events, whilst remembering the importance of tailoring technological solutions on human factors’, he added.