U.N. Adopts Antiterrorism Resolution

By Jim Wurst
Global Security Newswire

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution proposed by Russia designed to make the fight against terrorism more effective by demanding that states deny safe haven to terror suspects and move more aggressively to extradite or prosecute people suspected of committing or planning terrorist acts.

Russian Ambassador Andrei Denisov said the “major emphasis” of the resolution was that terrorism was “a crime that could not be justified by any political, ideological, religious or other views. Those responsible for terrorist acts should be given the harshest punishment for their crimes.” 

Unanimity was made possible after Russia and the other sponsors of the draft negotiated with the Muslim nations on the council to satisfy Muslim concerns that the resolution would not be used as a blanket condemnation of the Palestinians.

Resolution 1566 defines terrorism as “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” that “are under no circumstances justifiable by considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other similar nature.” 

U.S. Ambassador John Danforth called this provision the most important in the resolution since it “states very simply that the deliberate massacre of innocents is never justifiable in any cause — never.”

The resolution also “condemns in the strongest terms all acts of terrorism irrespective of their motivation, whenever and by whomsoever committed, as one of the most serious threats to peace and security.” 

To reinforce this point, the draft originally included a call for a list of terror suspects who would be placed under council sanctions. Muslim states objected to this idea, fearing resistance to occupation — a clear reference to the Palestinians and Israel — would be lumped in with other forms of violence. Instead, the resolution established a working group to consider steps “to be imposed upon individuals, groups or entities” involved in terrorist activities. Under current council resolutions, only al-Qaeda and the Taliban are specifically branded as terrorist organizations.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proposed the resolution in his speech to the General Assembly on Sept. 28, saying, “The time has come to renounce double standards once and for all when it comes to terror no matter what slogans it uses.” To this end, Lavrov said the Security Council needed a new resolution to identify “weak links in the antiterrorism network and increase practical cooperation” and that countries need to do more to ensure asylum rights are not abused as a cover for terrorism.

Turkish Ambassador Umit Pamir told the council that the Organization of the Islamic Conference had “serious misgivings” with the original Russian draft. He said the organization was pleased that the revisions had produced a resolution that “enjoyed the much wider support of the international community.”

Human rights advocates were also concerned that the language was so broad as to endanger legitimate expressions of religion and speech. Amnesty International said the resolution contains “language so broad and vague that peaceful political or human rights activists can easily be detained, prosecuted or extradited” under the resolution. In particular, the use of the word “supports” in connection with the planning of terrorist attacks could be used against “peaceful political or human rights activists,” Amnesty said.

The resolution also calls on states to “cooperate fully on an expedited basis in resolving all outstanding issues with a view to adopting by consensus the draft comprehensive convention on international terrorism and the draft international convention for the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism.” Coincidentally, the working group debating those two draft conventions concluded a four-day session on Friday without overcoming those “outstanding issues,” including a definition of terrorism and a decision on how far the use of force by states’ armed forces can be excluded from the definition of terrorism. The working group, a subsidiary of the General Assembly’s legal committee, is scheduled to bring the issue to the full committee later this month.

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