Terrorism as a global phenomenon is recognized to be the key problem of international security. However, at the national level, terrorism is not a new phenomenon. As a method of struggle, especially in conditions of limited resources of various opposition forces, the terrorist activity was quite common in world history.
According to one theory, the concept of “terror” originated during the French revolution - Jacobin terror, which meant the public destruction of unwanted people to intimidate others. There are earlier mentions of such a method of waging of a war of aggression.
The word “terror” means a state of extreme fear; this is why its main function is to intimidate the governmental institutions and society through the most extreme means of violence, accompanied with the massive propaganda. There are selected appropriate “targets” which can cause massive panic and attract attention of the whole society. A striking example is the terrorist act of September 11, 2001, when along with thousands of victims there had been done consequential harm - the total intimidation of TV viewers all over the world. Moreover, this attack was actually designed for this very purpose.
One of the most acute problems of modern international law and global policy is that all existing means of ensuring peace and security in the fight against international terrorism suddenly proved to be useless and not effective enough. It became especially clear on September 11, 2001. After the Second World War, all the civil defense systems were developed primarily in case of nuclear or chemical attacks. But there were no developments and mass military exercises for the case of large-scale terrorist acts.
The civil society with the ideology of openness, the priority of freedom and tolerance, with a high degree of internal organization and interdependence has become an object of the attack. Under the laws of the subversive activities, a more sophisticated object is the most vulnerable object of attack.
Not only war machine but also the mechanisms of the law of international security proved to be not prepared, not adapted to effective combat against international terrorism. One of the main problems is that existing international law does not consider the non-state actors of aggression; respectively, it is unacceptable to apply the mechanisms of international armed conflict (in particular, according to the Chapter VII of the UN Charter). As regards national means of defense, the armed countermeasures are possible, in accordance with art. 51 of the UN Charter, however, the right to self-defense arises only in response to an armed attack by another state or a group of terrorists.
The use of armed force in self-defence requires a balanced approach based solely on international law, which does not cause doubt and ambiguity from the international community. Thus, it is necessary to adapt the relevant rules of international law to contemporary challenges of international terrorism to effectively combat it.
International terrorism, according to many experts, is an asymmetric response to the challenges of globalization, the reaction of the emerging postmodern “network” organization of the world to pressure from the traditional hierarchical structures of world developments management. New forms of confrontation in the framework of international relations are referred to as the “asymmetric conflict” or the “terrorist war”.
Acts of international terrorism are, as a rule, fulfilled by persons or groups of persons who are not in official connection with any of the states. However, due to the fact that they affect the interests of many states, and often there is a conflict of national jurisdiction, states should cooperate in prevention and suppression of such crimes, in particular by providing each other with the aid in criminally-remedial operations. This refers, for example, to extradition of perpetrators. The main responsibility for combating these crimes lies with states, which at the national level and within their jurisdiction should take steps for their suppression and prevention.
When the state itself is involved in criminal acts of terrorism, from the point of view of the contemporary international law, such terrorist acts are considered particularly dangerous. States which support terrorist groups and individual terrorists are condemned in several international declarations and UN resolutions.
One of the key factors contributing to the development of effective mechanisms to counter international terrorism is to seek the modern trends of its formation. In today's world, they are largely determined by global phenomena, and peculiarities of development of modern civilization.
Thus, countering international terrorism - a network of transnational, cohesive and well-equipped terrorist organizations, will soon become the number one priority in world politics.
It is highly important to immediately clear up what to understand under the terms “the fight against terrorism” and “counter-terrorism”. The fight against terrorism involves the direct suppression of an imminent or already committed terrorist action including, in appropriate cases, the conduct of special operations or activities of law enforcement authorities and also investigation of terrorist acts.
With regard to counter-terrorism, this term has a broader concept than the concept of the fight against terrorism, and includes legislative, ideological, informational, organizational, administrative-legal, educational, and propaganda measures to prevent the emergence of actors of terrorism, to prevent realization of their criminal intent.
According to the definition of the UN Secretary-General, declared in 1994, international terrorism is characterized by terrorist acts, aiming at provoking a state of terror causing death and serious physical damages as well as material damage to intimidate government and population. (legalanswers.sl.nsw.gov.au, n.d.) When planning their actions terrorists receive guidance, come from other countries, seek shelter and get assistance in any form not in the country or countries in which they are committing these actions.
The United Nations is the center of the development of international-legal instruments for combating terrorism. Within the frame of the UN there has been prepared and adopted a number of international treaties aimed at combating terrorism.
- Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons including Diplomatic Agents of 14 December 1973;
- International Convention against the Taking of Hostages of 17 December 1979;
- International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries of 4 December 1989;
- Convention on the Safety of UN Staff and Associated Personnel of 9 December 1994;
- International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings of 15 December 1997. (un.org, n.d.)
It is necessary to put the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime of December 18, 2000 in a number of international treaties to combat terrorism. However, in order to use this document more effectively in fight against terrorism, it should be supplemented by the corresponding Protocol.
One of the most important tasks of the world community is the shut-off of global financial flows, directed to support terrorists. The solution of this problem is the adoption of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism of 9 December 1999.
The UN General Assembly regularly refers to the problems of the fight against terrorism, considers them, and adopts relevant resolutions. Security Council resolution 1269 (1999), adopted by the UN, became a kind of anti-terrorist manifesto of the main United Nations body for maintaining peace and security. In 2006 the participants of the world summit agreed on adoption of a comprehensive Convention on combating international terrorism, and creation of a basis for effective assistance to states in their anti-terrorist actions. (un.org, n.d.)
It can be noted that over the years the UN has developed a fairly large number of documents, which laid the legal basis for international cooperation in combating international terrorism. However, the threat of international terrorism is extremely actual today. Much remains to be done, because not all States Parties have ratified the UN Convention, which has already come into force.
The fact that the fight against terrorism must be conducted on the basis of international law and under the leadership of the UN is confirmed by the resolutions of the Security Council. The Council has adopted the resolution on sanctions against the Taliban movement in connection with the support of international terrorism. (un.org, n.d.)
The UN Resolution from 28 September 2001 obliged the states to take the following measures: to ensure the prohibition of the financing of terrorist organizations, to put an end to the recruitment of terrorists and their armament, to reach an early accession of all states to international conventions on combating terrorism and to ensure their full implementation. There has been set up a special body to monitor the fulfillment of the resolution. (state.gov, 2001)
In addition to the ratification of existing conventions and development of new ones on the fight against terrorism there should also be solved other international legal issues. First of all, it is necessary to establish the responsibility of states for all kinds of assistance to terrorism. It is expedient to begin this process with the adoption of the relevant resolution of the Security Council. The solution of this problem lies in the following. In principle, the fight against international terrorism must be waged with the help of criminal-legal methods, in accordance with international conventions. The responsibility lies with individuals.If terrorism is promoted by the state, it bears full international responsibility with ensuing countermeasures and, if necessary, sanctions.
The behavior of the armed forces, independently established on the part of the state`s territory shall not be considered as an act of that state, thus, the state is not responsible for their actions. In case of commitment by these groups a terrorist act against a foreign state, the latter has the right to use the armed force in self-defense informing the Security Council.
It is hoped that the recent events will force the leaders of states attend to international law. The first signs of this are already available. The U.S. Congress decided to pay the UN a portion of arrears of dues. (Schae, 1999) The US administration has announced that its first priority is to create an international coalition to combat all forms of terrorism.
The main strategic conditions of the fight against terrorism:
- forestalling, blocking of terrorism in its infancy and prevention of its formation and development;
- avoiding ideological justification of terror under the banner of “protection of the faith”, “protection of the nation”, debunking the terrorism with the all-round support of media;
- transfer of the entire control over anti-terrorist operation to the most reliable security services under the principle of non-intervention in their work of any other governing bodies;
- permission to negotiate with terrorists must be granted only to these special services and only for the purpose to conceal the preparation of the action towards the total elimination of terrorism and extremism;
- no concessions to terrorists, no unpunished terrorist attack, even if it costs the blood of the hostages and random people – because experience shows that any success of the terrorists provokes the further growth of terror and number of victims.
International cooperation in the fight against terrorism including its financing, still remains not sufficiently effective due to the fact that a number of states are not interested in cooperation and do not participate in international treaties in this field. The reason for this is an undeveloped mechanism for the formation of the list of countries and territories that do not participate in international cooperation in the fight against international terrorism and the impact on such states by the international community.
It is quite difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of international legal norms providing for criminal liability for financing of terrorism, in particular, due to the fact that they have been adopted relatively recently and since the information about what measures are being taken by the UN in the context of the adoption of measures to combat the financing of terrorism, is quite declarative.
Thus, in the foreseeable future, the fight against terrorism and its financing, will remain an urgent problem of world security requiring optimization on the basis of broad international cooperation, further improvement of the legal framework for combating terrorism and its financing.
References
Schae, B. D. (June, 1999). Congress Should Hold the Line on U.N. Reform. Retrieved from: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1999/06/congress-should-hold-the-line-on-un-reform
United Nations. (n.d.) Declarations and Conventions Contained in GA Resolutions. Retrieved from: http://www.un.org/documents/instruments/docs_en.asp?type=conven
United Nations. (n.d.) Security Council Adopts Two Resolutions, Extending Mandates of Groups Monitoring Sanctions Regimes against Al-Qaida, Taliban. Retrieved from: http://www.un.org/press/en/2014/sc11440.doc.htm
United Nations. (n.d.) UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy. Retrieved from: https://www.un.org/counterterrorism/ctitf/un-global-counter-terrorism-strategy
U.S. Department of State. (December, 2001). U.S. Report to the UN Counterterrorism Committee. Retrieved from: http://www.state.gov/p/io/rls/rpt/2001/6917.htm
Hot Topics. (2007). Terrorism. Retrieved from: http://www.legalanswers.sl.nsw.gov.au/hot_topics/pdf/terrorism_58.pdf
