Context:

• This article is based on the news “Terrorism against humanity…a divided world cannot find solution to it, says PM Modi” which was published in the Indian Express.            

Global Perspectives on Terrorism

• Moving away from good and bad terrorism: He also rejected efforts to justify it on grounds of good or bad terrorism while warning that the international community’s continuing failure to define terrorism had helped terrorists.
• In this context, in 1996, India proposed to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) the adoption of the “Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism” (CCIT).
• Recent attack on Isreal by Hamas: His remarks come in the wake of the ongoing Israel-Palestine Conflict  that has claimed more than 2,800 lives.

• Global Terrorism Index: India placed 13th in 2023, a slight improvement from the year before. India scored 7.175 on the GTI, making it one of the countries with the “highest” impact of terrorism.

What is Terrorism?

• There is no current agreement regarding a universal legal definition of terrorism.
• However, Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) defines terrorism as follows: Any person commits an offense within the meaning of this Convention if that person, by any means, unlawfully and intentionally, causes:
  • Death or serious bodily injury to any person; or
  • Serious damage to public or private property, including a place of public use, a State or government facility, a public transportation system, an infrastructure facility or the environment; or
  • Damage to property, places, facilities, or systems resulting or likely to result in major economic loss, when the purpose of the conduct, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population or to compel a Government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act.
• The UAPA act in Section 15 defines a “terrorist act”: Any act intended to threaten or likely to threaten India’s unity, integrity, security, economic security, or sovereignty or to strike dread in the people or any segment of the people in India or abroad.

What is CCIT?

• Origin
  • The CCIT provides a legal framework that binds all signatories to deny funds and safe havens to terrorist groups. The original draft which was tabled in 1996 and discussed until April 2013.
• Objectives
  • To have a universal definition of terrorism that all 193 members of the UNGA will adopt into their own criminal law
  • To ban all terror groups and shut down terror camps
  • To prosecute all terrorists under special laws
  • To make cross-border terror activities an extraditable offense worldwide.
• Status
  • The convention has been under negotiation by the United Nations General Assembly’s Ad Hoc Committee established by Resolution 51/210 of 17 December 1996 on Terrorism and the United Nations General Assembly Sixth Committee (Legal), but as of 2023 consensus has not yet been reached for the adoption of the convention.

What are hurdles in adoption of CCIT?

• Despite India’s efforts to push a global intergovernmental convention to tackle terrorism, the conclusion and ratification of the CCIT remains deadlocked.
• Mainly due to opposition from three main blocs – over the “definition of terrorism” (the most divisive of the issues) and seeking exclusions to safeguard their strategic interests
• The United States and its Allies:
  • The US wanted the draft to exclude acts committed by states’ military forces during peacetime. For example US’s ‘War on terror’ policy Post 9/11 in Afganistan and Iraq has been criticised for War Crimes and Human Right violation.
• The Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC)
  • The OIC wants the exclusion of national liberation movements, especially in the context of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. They also sought to include the actions of “all parties” to an armed conflict, including that of the armed forces of a state within the scope of the CCIT under Article 18 of the CCIT.
  • Their opinion was that CCIT encouraged impunity of the armed forces. This, for them, amounted to supporting  “state-terrorism”, as exemplified mainly by the actions of Israel’s Defence Forces.
• The Latin American countries
  • Latin American Countries want a comprehensive definition of Terrorism and support the inclusion of foreign interventions as ‘State terrorism’ and also emphasize  the inclusion of International human rights laws.

However, consensus eludes to the adoption of the terrorism convention.

Global Efforts to Counter Terrorism

• Global Conventions and Treaties: At its 49th session, the General Assembly approved the Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism (resolution 49/60) and further discussion yielded following Conventions.
  • The International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, adopted on December 15, 1997.
  • The International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of terror activities, adopted on 9 December 1999; and 
  • International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear terror activities, adopted on 13 April 2005.
• The 1267 committee: It was set up in 1999 (updated in 2011 and 2015) allows any UN member state to propose adding the name of a terrorist or terror group to a consolidated list.
  • India has successfully proposed the listing of several terror entities in the past two decades, including Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
• Financial Action Task Force: To counter the threats of the abuse of the financial system by criminals and terrorists, and strengthens its capacity to respond to these threats that all countries face.
  

Way Forward

• India has condemned terrorism in all its forms and stressed that tackling it requires a holistic approach and collective action. 
• Political will: All  UN members summon the political will to unhesitatingly combat terror activities. All Member States must fulfill their obligations enshrined in international counter-terrorism instruments and conventions.
• No double standards: Terrorists are terrorists and  era of classifying terrorists as ‘bad, ‘good’ on basis of political convenience must end immediately.
• Transparency, accountability and effectiveness: Enlisting and delisting individuals and entities under the UN sanctions regimes must be done objectively, not for political or religious considerations. 
  • China Blocks UNSC Listing of LeT’s Sajid Mir as a Global Terrorist in june 2023.
• Anti-radicalism strategies: Discourage exclusivist thinking that divides the world and harms our social fabric. Such approaches facilitate radicalization and recruitment by breeding fear, mistrust, and hatred among different communities. 
• Holistic strategy: Linkages between terrorism and transnational organized crime must be fully recognized and addressed vigorously. 
  • India, have seen the crime syndicate responsible for the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts not just given State protection.
• Terror Financing: Combating terrorist financing will only be as effective as the weakest jurisdiction. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) should continue to identify and remedy weaknesses in anti-money laundering and counter-terror can make a big difference.
• Anti-terror Finance: Adequate funding to UN Counter Terrorism bodies from the UN regular budget requires immediate attention. 

Conclusion:

To counter global  terrorism in all forms, countries must agree upon a definition of terrorism and  rise above narrow self-interest and break the prism of good and bad terrorism.