The Charity Commission will provide an update on charities' links to terrorism within its 2009-2010 Back on Track report due later this month, after a Europol terrorism report highlighted the sector’s involvement in funding terrorist activities, in particular that of women.
Europol's latest annual EU terrorism and trend report, first established following the 11 September attacks, was published earlier this month. It pointed in particular to women’s part in bridging between charities and terrorist organisations:
"Charitable organisations, NGOs and media outlets continue to be misused by individuals who misappropriate voluntary contributions destined for genuine purposes in order to fund terrorist activities," it said.
"Recent research at Europol indicates that women are often involved in the misuse of funds derived from charitable organisations."
Speaking to Civil Society, Europol spokesman Søren Kragh Pedersen added: “We can tell you that women sometimes play a role as associates in supporting terrorist organisations.
“They are involved in propaganda, facilitation, support and financial activities, whereas men are more likely to be involved in actually perpetrating violence and attack-related activities. Women are also sometimes used as cash couriers and they do sometimes smuggle documents and take care of administrative matters.”
Commission receives allegations
The Commission advised that allegation of terrorism connections still exist within the sector.
“We do receive allegations of links and associations between charities and terrorist activity and we continue to carry out ongoing investigations in this area," said a spokesperson. “However, proven instances resulting in criminal convictions are rare in comparison to the size of the sector (income of £52bn).
"We reported on our investigatory work involving allegations of terrorism and on progress in implementing our counter-terrorism strategy in Back on Track 2008-09 and will be reporting in the forthcoming Back on Track for 2009-10 to be published later this month.”
The Commission published a counter-terrorism strategy in 2007.
