|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
International Response: Security Council Debate Stresses International Cooperation By Jim Wurst The meeting was a follow-up to a session Jan. 20 at which the council, meeting at the foreign minister level, issued a declaration calling for greater international cooperation against terrorism. That declaration, adopted unanimously as Resolution 1456, called for intensified national and international efforts to combat terrorism, including the ratification of various treaties on the suppression of terrorism, full implementation of sanctions against al-Qaeda, and cooperation with the council’s Counterterrorism Committee, set up by Resolution 1373 of September 2001 following the terror attacks on the United States (see GSN, Oct. 7, 2002). British U.N. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, the chairman of the CTC, said the committee “is continually gaining in experience and effectiveness.” He said the committee is concentrating on three areas of concern: helping states “raise their [national] capacity to defeat terrorism,” promoting “assistance programs to accelerate” this work and “creating a global network of international and regional organizations to maximize the efficiency of each of them in dealing with terrorism and to share experience and best practice.” The CTC will hold a special meeting March 7 focused on improving international and regional cooperation in combating terrorism, Greenstock said. Representatives from regional groups as well as regional financial institutions have been invited to attend. “All the regional organizations are way ahead of where they were 18 months ago” and realize “that it is in their interests to keep terrorism out,” said Greenstock. “There are economic, social and political disadvantages in allowing terrorism to grow on one’s territory.” During the debate, countries raised a number of common themes, such as linking terrorism to drug trafficking, poverty and racism and the importance of wide adherence to the anti-terrorism conventions. Jeanette Ndhlovu of South Africa said, “No individual government can hope to unilaterally defeat nonstate terrorist actors that operate with sophisticated technologies, communications and resources on a global scale, virtually oblivious to state boundaries.” Greek Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis, speaking for the European Union, said the union was making progress on common anti-terrorism measures such as suppressing terrorist financing and creating the European Arrest Warrant. “The combat against this scourge must be carried out in accordance with the rule of law and international law, including human rights law, and, in case of an armed conflict, humanitarian law,” he added. After the debate, Greenstock said the CTC has become “increasingly conscious that we have to create a global network. It has to be pervasive and comprehensive and that increasingly is what we are trying to do.” He added, “I think we’ve now discussed, analyzed and planned enough. The next period will be for action.” For more information, see: U.N. summary of council meeting
| ||||||||||
Back to top
