definitions regarding terrorism have been made by its three different. The General Assembly, in the United Nations Declaration to Supplement the 1994 Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, annexed to the Resolution 51/210 on “Measures to eliminate international terrorism”, “solemnly” condemned terrorist acts in the following terms: “1. The States Members of the United Nations solemnly reaffirm their unequivocal condemnation of all acts, methods and practices of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable, wherever and by whomsoever committed, including those which jeopardize friendly relations among States and peoples and threaten the territorial integrity and security of States; 2. The States Members of the United Nations reaffirm that acts, methods and practices of terrorism are contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations; they declare that knowingly financing, planning and inciting terrorist acts are also contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations;“ In the abovementioned resolution, it was further mentioned that “criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other nature that may be invoked to justify them.” The Security Council (UNSC), in Resolution 1566 on October 8, 2004, mentioned terrorist actions while calling upon states to take action on the elimination of such actions: “criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act, which constitute offences within the scope of and as defined in the international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism, are under no circumstances justifiable by considerations of a political,
Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, which was the very first attempt of the United Nations to define “terrorism” and which included member states’ reaffirming “their unequivocal condemnation of all acts, methods and practices of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable”. Currently, members of the United Nations are negotiating a comprehensive convention, which will have a complementary role for the existing framework of international instruments. United Nations Global Strategy United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy was a milestone for the United Nations and its General Assembly. The Strategy summarised all the efforts the agencies of the United Nations have produced until its preparation. The Strategy was adopted with consensus on September 8, 2006 in the 99th plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly; no voting was held. It covered recommendations to the member states in four key areas: Addressing the conditions conductive to the spread of terrorism Prevention from and combating of terrorism Building States’ capacity to prevent and combat terrorism and to strengthen the role of the United Nations system in this regard Ensuring respect for human rights for all and the rule of law as the fundamental basis of the fight against terrorism The Strategy also included a decision to add the review of the implementation of the Strategy to the agenda of the General Assembly biennially. In the first review in 2008 and the second review in 2010, the General Assembly stressed “the need to enhance the role of the United Nations and the specialized agencies, within their mandates, in the implementation of the Strategy.” The Assembly further stressed the need and encouraged the to cooperate with international, regional and sub-regional organisations and civil society in the implementation process. When the reviews of 2008 and 2010 are examined, it is visible that the General Assembly only reviewed the current situation and further suggestions were not covered widely. The latest review in 2012 is the most comprehensive among all reviews, adding new dimensions to the debate. More specifically, the General Assembly reaffirmed that “terrorism Terrorism
Crime (UNODC) and the Human Rights Council (UNHRC), preceded by the Commission on Human Rights, a subsidiary body of ECOSOC. ECOSOC provided expertise on technical assistance for implementing the international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism by proposing comprehensive resolution texts and for strengthening international cooperation. It further functioned to include the frameworks of UNODC and the Centre for International Crime Prevention to the expertise provided. UNODC provided expertise in the areas of crime prevention and criminal justice, rule of law, drug control, transnational organized crime, money-laundering, corruption and related international cooperation in criminal matters with operational field-level capacity. The Office further supported legislative incorporation and implementation of the universal legal regime against terrorism via its Terrorism Prevention Branch. In 2005, the Commission on Human Rights and UNHRC -as its successor- appointed a Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. This contribution plays an important role, considering the coverage of the specialisation area of the UNHRC Rapporteur in the UN Global Strategy. The Special Rapporteur is mandated to make recommendations; provide advisory service and technical assistance; identify and promote good practices; gather information from concerned people and organisations via country visits; integrate a gender perspective during their term of mandate; develop a regular dialogue and encourage cooperation with governments and all relevant actors; including relevant UN bodies, agencies and programmes; and report regularly to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly. II. Inter-governmental organisations and regional cooperation a. Europe i. European Union European Union (the Union, EU) is a supra-national organisation consisting of 28 member-states. It has been initiated with the purpose of creating political, economic, social and legal cohesion in the European continent. According to the related framework decision of the Council of the European Union, the Union “is founded on the universal values of human dignity, liberty, equality and solidarity, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and is based on the principle of Terrorism
to the commission of terrorist offences, namely: public provocation, recruitment and training by reinforcing co-operation on prevention both internally (national prevention policies), and internationally (modification of existing extradition and mutual assistance arrangements and additional means).” b. Africa and the Middle East i. African Union The attempts of the African Union regarding the counter-terrorism policies so far are: (1) Algiers Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism in 1999 (prepared by the Organisation of African Unity, the predecessor of the African Union), (2) Dakar Declaration against Terrorism in 2001 and (3) intergovernmental meeting on the prevention of and combating terrorism in Africa and the Plan of Action of the meeting. Algiers Convention on the Prevention and Combating of in 1999 condemned all acts of terrorism while recognising the self-determination right. The Convention mostly concentrated on cooperation areas, possible legal provisions and legal assistance. Dakar Declaration against Terrorism in 2001 was adopted a month after the 9/11 attack. With the Declaration, the Union condemned the attack and expressed firm stance for cooperation among states against acts of terrorism, be it perpetrated by individuals, groups, or States. In September 2002, a high-level meeting was convened in Algiers, Algeria by the African Union, on the prevention and combating of terrorism in Africa. The high-level meeting ended up with a detailed counter-terrorism policy. The meeting summarised all the previous counter-terrorism efforts; the firm stance against terrorism, which constitutes the need for such a high-level meeting, was based on the Algiers Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism and the Dakar Declaration against Terrorism. The Plan of Action of the meeting covered many aspects that the member states require in both individual and collective counter-terrorism, namely police and border control, legislative and judicial measures –possible amendments to the national laws and their suppressing the financing of terrorism, exchange of information, establishing further coordination at regional, continental and international levels and the role of the Union and its organs.
ii. League of Arab States Interior ministers of the Arab states, following the rise of Islamic extremist violence in the aftermath of the Gulf War, began discussing ways to establish an cooperation. However, the discussions ended up with a formal action in January 1996, after four years of discussion, despite the numerous meetings and reportedly examined several different recommendations. The first formal action was adopting a code of ethics “wherein Arab states commit themselves to combat terrorism and abstain from participating or engaging in terrorist actions or offering asylum to the perpetrators of such acts”. In August 1996, the ministers agreed on what the definition of terrorism does not include; they excluded “armed struggles by peoples under foreign occupation to free their lands and realize their rights of self-determination” from the definition, which they use as the basis of the use of violence against Israel. After two years of attempts for a solution, an “accord to fight Terrorism and Extremism” was adopted on April 22, 1998. The accord called for a strong stance against terrorism and cooperation among Arab states. On November 19, 2009, the Council of Justice Ministers decided to strengthen the existing cooperation in counter-terrorism. On March 28, 2010, the Council of the League gathered at the summit level and adopted a resolution on international terrorism and its suppression, which included a call for continuing dialogue and cooperation with the Security Council Counter Terrorism Committee. c. Asia i. South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Based on the Dhaka Summit in 1985 where “the Heads of State or Government of the Member States of the SAARC recognized the seriousness of the problem of terrorism as it affects the security and stability of the region” and the Bangalore Summit Declaration of 1986 where SAARC member states agreed on cooperating in terrorism-related policies, a “Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism” was produced. The Convention generally concentrates on cooperation and mutual assistance in suppression of terrorism. In 2004, SAARC member states adopted an additional protocol to strengthen the convention in the field of combating financing of terrorism, giving reference to the conventions and other related documents of the United Nations.