United Nations and measures to eliminate international terrorism
United Nations and Measures To Eliminate International Terrorism

Summary/Abstract: The question of terrorism has been on the United Nations agenda since the 1960s when the spread of aircraft hijacking incidents drove states to draft conventions on international terrorism. The Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed On Board Aircraft (Tokyo, 1963), the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft (Hague, 1970) and the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation (Montreal, 1971) were the first treaties to deal with the problem of international terrorism. In 1972 the General Assembly decided to establish an Ad Hoc Committee on International Terrorism which held its sessions in 1973, 1977 and 1979 and reported to the General Assembly. The Committee adopted a subject matter approach to the terrorist acts in its work because agreement seemed to be impossible to be reached on a comprehensive definition of international terrorism. The major Western powers sought to limit terrorism to individual and small group attacks, excluding police and military operation of states, irrespective of their legitimacy. Other states, especially the non-aligned states wished to include terror-acts of states, illegitimate state conduct and state sponsored violent activities, especially that of the armed forces, and sought to establish individual responsibility of the agents of states for the acts. Between 1963 and 2002 the United Nations and the Specialised Agencies, such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the International Maritime Organisation and the International Atomic Energy Agency drafted several conventions to address terrorist attacks upon civil aviation, civil maritime navigation and sea based platforms, upon persons, including hostages, diplomats, UN personnel and other internationally protected persons, as well as to fight the financing of terrorism and the use of bombing and explosive devices against civilian installations and persons.[...]

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