3.10.5. Comprehensive Convention on Terrorism

♤ Proposed first by India in 1996. There are at least 14 conventions on terrorism.

♤ CCIT provides a legal framework which makes it binding on all signatories to deny funds and safe havens to terrorist groups. Its Objectives are

o To have a universal definition of terrorism that all 193-members of the UNGA will adopt into their own criminal law

o To ban all terror groups and shut down terror camps

o To prosecute all terrorists under special laws

o to make cross-border terrorism an extraditable offence worldwide

♤ the completion of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism is in a limbo due to opposition from the US and OIC countries as well as Latin American countries.

♤ All three have objections over the “definition of terrorism” (the most divisive of the issues) and seek exclusions to safeguard their strategic interests. For example, the OIC wants exclusion of national liberation movements, especially in the context of Israel-Palestinian conflict. The US wanted the draft to exclude acts committed by military forces of states during peacetime.

♤ The CCIT is currently being discussed at the Sixth Ad Hoc Committee of the United Nations. The committee is the primary forum for the consideration of legal questions in the UNGA.

♤ India, on its part, has lobbied overtime, especially with the OIC countries and GCC.