Schism in Global Community on Defining Terror

Context: Counter-terrorism challenges in present times have become more and more complicated. There is a  need to have greater policy collaboration among member states to define what constitutes terrorism

Multilateral Body’s Discourse on Defining Terrorism

• United Nations General Assembly (UNGA): since 1996, recommending a working group for finalising process on draft comprehensive convention on international terrorism (still work in progress with no concrete results).
• UN Security Council Resolution 1373: provided normative and actionable steps for combating terrorism, without giving globally accepted definition of terrorism.

Issues associated with defining Terrorism

• Distinction between ‘terrorism’ and ‘legitimate rights of people to resist foreign occupation’ was observed by Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and international law.
  • U.S. objected to this distinction on account of its operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
• Differences further widened due to geopolitical rivalries: between US-China and Iran-US cold war dictated the discourse (in 2020).
  • Counter-terrorism measures not as means for stifling human rights or a fundamental freedom was observed by US drawing attention to China’s actions in Xinjiang province.
  • In turn, China urged against “the use of double standards and interference in affairs of other countries under the guise of combating terrorism”.
• US’s unilateral listing of Iran as “the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism”: was objected by Iran and it called for streamlining UNSC’s listing and delisting procedures.
  • 14 ongoing sanction regimes support political settlement of conflicts, nuclear non-proliferation, and counterterrorism.
• Israel underlined need for comprehensive convention on international terrorism: with zero tolerance approach to terrorism that no cause or grievance could or should ever justify or excuse terrorism.

Conclusion:

• Hiring moderators, filtration mechanisms of tech giants (Facebook and Twitter) are inadequate in dealing with counter terrorism challenges such as online radicalisation.
• Hence it’s time for enhanced accountability, coherence and greater policy collaboration among UNGA member states and implementation of international legal provisions on prevention, repression and elimination of terrorism.