ICAO's Secretary General, Dr Fang Liu, has stressed how robust ID management frameworks provide a critical foundation for secure and efficient travel document and border control solutions.Speaking at the ICAO TRIP Seminar held in Hong Kong in July 2017, Dr Liu said: "Through ICAO's standards, our Traveller Identification Programme (TRIP) strategy harmonises the global line of defence in our shared battle to confront international terrorist movements, cross-border crime, and many other threats to civil society and international aviation."The ICAO TRIP strategy has been recognised as critical in aviation security, especially for combatting foreign terrorist fighters, with a special focus on effective border control management, as reflected in United Nations (UN) Security Council (SC) Resolutions 2178 and 2309, which were adopted in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Dr Liu advised the seminar audience that the special meeting of the Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) on Terrorist Threats to Civil Aviation that she had attended earlier in July had considered relevant gaps and vulnerabilities and discussed possible instruments and tools to further support ICAO-compliant border control management systems. "We will continue to explore new means of addressing the terrorist threat through various ICAO TRIP elements," said Dr Liu. "ICAO works closely with many leading organisations. We encourage states to come together at the regional and sub-regional levels to agree on action plans, and to coordinate efforts aimed at rectifying aviation security and facilitation deficiencies in a robust, affordable and sustainable manner."The Hong Kong TRIP Seminar was hosted by the Civil Aviation Department of Hong Kong with additional support from Hong Kong International Airport. It attracted 196 participants from 37 countries and 10 international organisations, and addressed the five elements of the ICAO TRIP Strategy: machine-readable travel document (MRTD) standards; specifications and best practices; secure travel document issuance; robust evidence of identity processes; and information sharing technologies.
ICAO highlights importance of robust ID management
