Victims of ETA, Al Qaeda, the Islamic State (EI) and Boko Haram intervene Wednesday before the Security Council of the UN, in an unprecedented meeting promoted by Spain and the United States.
The chosen format, known as United Nations formula "Arria" allows Council members a more informal discussion with the participation of guests, in this case, the victims themselves.
"This event held today has a profound importance for being at first" victims of terrorism, all have visibility at the United Nations, and to do so in the form that bears my name is especially gratifying, the diplomat said Diego Arria of Venezuela.
"Those were the modalities that the free and democratic Venezuela could open the political leadership of the world: The Security Council of the UN," said Arria.
This is the first time that the Security Council hear the testimonies of people directly affected by terrorism and will do so precisely at a time when the fight against violent extremism is a major priority of the highest decision-making body The United Nations.
The meeting will be chaired by Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz, and Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Garcia-Margallo, next to the US representative to the UN, Ambassador Samantha Power.
As part of the Spanish delegation at the meeting will be the president of the Victims of Terrorism Foundation, María del Mar Blanco; Jana Gallardo, wounded in the attacks of March 11 in Madrid; and Thomas Fraga, victim of an attack in 2005 by a group linked to Al Qaeda in Egypt.
Joining them will involve one Yezidi activist, one of the communities most affected by the rise in Iraq EI, and Nigerian working on behalf of victims of Boko Haram.
During the meeting, Fernandez Diaz has also provided the Spanish system for the protection of victims of terrorism.
Subsequently, the interior minister inaugurated in the UN headquarters a photographic exhibition with images of different attacks and the reaction of citizens.
Spain, which this month chairs the Security Council of the UN, raised inter alia the establishment of an International Counter-Terrorism Court to take charge of the fight against impunity in these crimes.