Security Council resolution 2341 (2017) [on protection of critical infrastructure against terrorist acts]
Symbol: S/RES/2341 (2017)
Date: 2017-02-13
Status: adopted
Agenda: S/72 [31] TERRORISM
S/72 [10] INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
Subjects: UN. Security Council Committee Established pursuant to Resolution 1373 (2001) concerning Counter-Terrorism|UN. Security Council Committee Established pursuant to Resolution 1373 (2001) concerning Counter-Terrorism. Executive Directorate|UN. Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force|UN. Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force. Working Group on the Protection of Critical Infrastructure including Vulnerable Targets, Internet and Tourism Security|TERRORISM|PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE|COUNTER-TERRORISM|INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION|INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
Votes in favour: 15
Votes against: 0
Abstentions: 0
Voting record:
country: BOLIVIA (PLURINATIONAL STATE OF)
vote: yes
country: CHINA
vote: yes
country: EGYPT
vote: yes
country: ETHIOPIA
vote: yes
country: FRANCE
vote: yes
country: ITALY
vote: yes
country: JAPAN
vote: yes
country: KAZAKHSTAN
vote: yes
country: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
vote: yes
country: SENEGAL
vote: yes
country: SWEDEN
vote: yes
country: UKRAINE
vote: yes
country: UNITED KINGDOM
vote: yes
country: UNITED STATES
vote: yes
country: URUGUAY
vote: yes

               United Nations                                                                   S/RES/2341 (2017)
               Security Council                                                 Distr.: General
                                                                                13 February 2017




               Resolution 2341 (2017)
               Adopted by the Security Council at its 7882nd meeting, on
               13 February 2017

                    The Security Council,
                    Recalling its resolutions 1373 (2001), 1963 (2010), 2129 (2013) and 2322
               (2016),
                    Reaffirming its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international
               peace and security, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations,
                    Reaffirming its respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political
               independence of all States in accordance with the United Nations Charter,
                     Reaffirming that terrorism in all forms and manifestations constitutes one of
               the most serious threats to international peace and security and that any acts of
               terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable regardless of their motivations, whenever,
               wherever and by whomsoever committed, and remaining determined to contribute
               further to enhancing the effectiveness of the overall effort to fight this scourge on a
               global level,
                     Reaffirming that terrorism poses a threat to international peace and security
               and that countering this threat requires collective efforts on national, regional and
               international levels on the basis of respect for international law, including
               international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and the Charter
               of the United Nations,
                    Reaffirming that terrorism should not be associated with any religion,
               nationality, civilization or ethnic group,
                     Stressing that the active participation and collaboration of all States and
               international, regional and subregional organizations is needed to impede, impair,
               isolate, and incapacitate the terrorist threat, and emphasizing the importance of
               implementing the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GCTS),
               contained in General Assembly resolution 60/288 of 8 September 2006, and its
               subsequent reviews,
                     Reiterating the need to undertake measures to prevent and combat terrorism, in
               particular by denying terrorists access to the means to carry out their attacks, as




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               outlined in Pillar II of the UN GCTS, including the need to strengthen efforts to
               improve security and protection of particularly vulnerable targets, such as
               infrastructure and public places, as well as resilience to terrorist attacks, in
               particular in the area of civil protection, while recognizing that States may require
               assistance to this effect,
                     Recognizing that each State determines what constitutes its critical
               infrastructure, and how to effectively protect it from terrorist attacks,
                     Recognizing a growing importance of ensuring reliability and resilience of
               critical infrastructure and its protection from terrorist attacks for national security,
               public safety and the economy of the concerned States as well as well-being and
               welfare of their population,
                    Recognizing that preparedness for terrorist attacks includes prevention,
               protection, mitigation, response and recovery with an emphasis on promoting
               security and resilience of critical infrastructure, including through public -private
               partnership as appropriate,
                    Recognizing that protection efforts entail multiple streams of efforts, such as
               planning; public information and warning; operational coordination; intelligence
               and information sharing; interdiction and disruption; screening, search and
               detection; access control and identity verification; cybersecurity; physical protective
               measures; risk management for protection programmes and activities; and supply
               chain integrity and security,
                     Acknowledging a vital role that informed, alert communities play in promoting
               awareness and understanding of the terrorist threat environment and specifically in
               identifying and reporting suspicious activities to law enforcement authorities, and
               the importance of expanding public awareness, engagement, and public -private
               partnership as appropriate, especially regarding potential terrorist threats and
               vulnerabilities through regular national and local dialogue, training, and outreach,
                     Noting increasing cross-border critical infrastructure interdependencies
               between countries, such as those used for, inter alia, generation, transmission and
               distribution of energy, air, land and maritime transport, banking and financial
               services, water supply, food distribution and public health,
                     Recognizing that, as a result of increasing interdependency among critical
               infrastructure sectors, some critical infrastructure is potentially susceptible to a
               growing number and a wider variety of threats and vulnerabilities that raise new
               security concerns,
                     Expressing concern that terrorist attacks on critical infrastructure could
               significantly disrupt the functioning of government and private sector alike and
               cause knock-on effects beyond the infrastructure sector,
                     Underlining that effective critical infrastructure protection requires sectoral
               and cross-sectoral approaches to risk management and includes, inter alia,
               identifying and preparing for terrorist threats to reduce vulnerability of critical
               infrastructure, preventing and disrupting terrorist plots against critical infrastructure
               where possible, minimizing impacts and recovery time in the event of damage from
               a terrorist attack, identifying the cause of damage or the source of an attack,




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           preserving evidence of an attack and holding those responsible for the attack
           accountable,
                 Recognizing in this regard that the effectiveness of critical infrastructure
           protection is greatly enhanced when based on an approach that considers all threats
           and hazards, notably terrorist attacks, and when combined with regular and
           substantive consultation and cooperation with operators of critical infrastructure and
           law enforcement and security officials charged with protection of critical
           infrastructure, and, when appropriate, with other stakeholders, including private
           sector owners,
                 Recognizing that the protection of critical infrastructure requires cooperation
           domestically and across borders with governmental authorities, foreign partners and
           private sector owners and operators of such infrastructure, as well as sharing their
           knowledge and experience in developing policies, good practices, and lessons
           learned,
                 Recalling that the resolution 1373 (2001) called upon Member States to find
           ways of intensifying and accelerating the exchange of operational information,
           especially regarding actions or movements of terrorist persons or networks; forged
           or falsified travel documents; traffic in arms, explosives or sensitive materials; use
           of communications technologies by terrorist groups; and the threat posed by the
           possession of weapons of mass destruction by terrorist groups and to cooperate,
           particularly through bilateral and multilateral arrangements and agreements, to
           prevent and suppress terrorist attacks,
                 Noting the work of relevant international, regional and subregional
           organizations, entities, forums and meetings on enhancing protection, security, and
           resilience of critical infrastructure,
                 Welcoming the continuing cooperation on counter-terrorism efforts between
           the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) and International Criminal Police
           Organization (INTERPOL), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in
           particular on technical assistance and capacity-building, and all other United
           Nations bodies, and strongly encouraging their further engagement with the United
           Nations Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) to ensure overall
           coordination and coherence in the counter-terrorism efforts of the United Nations
           system,
                1.   Encourages all States to make concerted and coordinated efforts,
           including through international cooperation, to raise awareness, to expand
           knowledge and understanding of the challenges posed by terrorist attacks, in order
           to improve preparedness for such attacks against critical infrastructure;
                 2.    Calls upon Member States to consider developing or further improving
           their strategies for reducing risks to critical infrastructure from terrorist attacks,
           which should include, inter alia, assessing and raising awareness of the relevant
           risks, taking preparedness measures, including effective responses to such attacks,
           as well as promoting better interoperability in security and consequence
           management, and facilitating effective interaction of all stak eholders involved;
                 3.    Recalls its decision in resolution 1373 (2001) that all States shall
           establish terrorist acts as serious criminal offences in domestic laws and regulations,




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               and calls upon all Member States to ensure that they have established criminal
               responsibility for terrorist attacks intended to destroy or disable critical
               infrastructure, as well as the planning of, training for, and financing of and logistical
               support for such attacks;
                    4.   Сalls upon Member States to explore ways to exchange relevant
               information and to cooperate actively in the prevention, protection, mitigation,
               preparedness, investigation, response to or recovery from terrorist attacks planned
               or committed against critical infrastructure;
                     5.    Further calls upon States to establish or strengthen national, regional and
               international partnerships with stakeholders, both public and private, as appropriate,
               to share information and experience in order to prevent, protect, mitigate ,
               investigate, respond to and recover from damage from terrorist attacks on critical
               infrastructure facilities, including through joint training, and use or establishment of
               relevant communication or emergency warning networks;
                    6.    Urges all States to ensure that all their relevant domestic departments,
               agencies and other entities work closely and effectively together on matters of
               protection of critical infrastructure against terrorist attacks;
                     7.     Encourages the United Nations as well as those Member States and
               relevant regional and international organizations that have developed respective
               strategies to deal with protection of critical infrastructure to work with all States and
               relevant international, regional and subregional organizations and entities to identify
               and share good practices and measures to manage the risk of terrorist attacks on
               critical infrastructure;
                     8.    Affirms that regional and bilateral economic cooperation and
               development initiatives play a vital role in achieving stability and pro sperity, and in
               this regard calls upon all States to enhance their cooperation to protect critical
               infrastructure, including regional connectivity projects and related cross -border
               infrastructure, from terrorist attacks, as appropriate, through bilateral a nd
               multilateral means in information sharing, risk assessment and joint law
               enforcement;
                     9.   Urges States able to do so to assist in the delivery of effective and
               targeted capacity development, training and other necessary resources, technical
               assistance, technology transfers and programmes, where it is needed to enable all
               States to achieve the goal of protection of critical infrastructure against terrorist
               attacks;
                     10. Directs the CTC, with the support of the Counter-Terrorism Executive
               Directorate (CTED) to continue as appropriate, within their respective mandates, to
               examine Member States efforts to protect critical infrastructure from terrorist
               attacks as relevant to the implementation of resolution 1373 (2001) with the aim of
               identifying good practices, gaps and vulnerabilities in this field;
                     11. Encourages in this regard the CTC, with the support of CTED, as well as
               the CTITF to continue working together to facilitate technical assistance and
               capacity building and to raise awareness in the field of protection of critical
               infrastructure from terrorist attacks, in particular by strengthening its dialogue with
               States and relevant international, regional and subregional organizations and




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           working closely, including by sharing information, with relevant bilateral and
           multilateral technical assistance providers;
                 12. Encourages the CTITF Working Group on the Protection of Critical
           Infrastructure including Vulnerable Targets, Internet and Tourism Security t o
           continue its facilitation, and in cooperation with other specialized United Nations
           agencies, assistance on capacity-building for enhancing implementation of the
           measures upon request by Member States;
                13. Requests the CTC to update the Council in twelve months on the
           implementation of this resolution;
                14.   Decides to remain seized of the matter.




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