UN resolutions to counter terrorism

‘Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism: A Role for United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies’ authored by Salma Yusuf and published in the inaugural issue of the Kadirgamar Review launched on 2 January 2013 is a timely and welcome contribution to the on-going debate on Counter-Terrorism Measures and the Protection of Human Rights.

The events of 11 September 2001 had triggered worldwide, renewed attention for effective and urgent measures to combat terrorism. As described by writers J.Wouters and F.Naert, "The Terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, have widely been regarded as adding a new dimension to international terrorism. They have also sent shock waves through International Law, as they gave rise to the adoption of far-reaching counter-terrorism measures by a great number of countries and International Organizations..."

Landmark Resolution 1373 of the UN Security Council adopted on 28 September 2001, under Ch. VII of the UN Charter, obliges States to undertake a range of measures for the prevention of terrorist acts and to bring to justice, those who have participated in the financing, planning or preparation of such acts or in supporting them.




In the immediate aftermath of 9 /11, there was hardly a mention of Human Rights, the priority being to respond urgently and effectively to the unprecedented terrorist threat. In  the words of the  Special Rapporteur of the then UN Sub- Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Ms.Coufa, responses to terrorism at the international and domestic levels have been "dramatic, sometimes undertaken with a sense of panic and emergency."
However,with time,the Human Rights dimension was gradually injected into the discourse. The then Secretary-General of the United Nations,Kofi Annan stated on 18 January 2002;

"{There} is no trade-off between effective action against terrorism and the protection of human rights...{While} we certainly need vigilance to prevent acts of terrorism and firmness in condemning and punishing them,it will be self-defeating, if we sacrifice other key priorities...such as human rights...in the process."

In addition, Human Rights Treaty Monitoring Bodies,such as the Human Rights Committee,the UN Committee against Torture,and the UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination,at the international level, the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights at the regional level,through their respective jurisprudence, have brought about a greater sense of awareness and a balance concerning the human rights dimension in the fight against terrorism.
At the national level,domestic Courts, for instance Courts in Sweden,have scrutinised closely,domestic executive and legislative measures taken to implement SC Resolution 1373,from the Human Rights perspective,paying  regard in particular, to the due process requirement.   

Indeed, even preceding the events of 9/11,the 'new generation' Sectoral Conventions in the field of Suppression of Terrorism,adopted within the UN Ad-Hoc Committee on Measures to Eliminate  International Terrorism,namely, the International Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings (1997), the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Financing (1999),and post-2001,the International Convention on Nuclear Terrorism (2005),had broken new ground in injecting the Human Rights component into the multilateral treaty regime on terrorism.This was achieved, inter-alia, by providing for Consular access and for the ICRC to communicate with and visit offenders, alleged to have committed terrorist crimes, as defined in these Conventions.This was a feature not found in the precedent Conventions such as those relating to hijacking of aircraft.

The publication comprises,inter- alia, a comprehensive thematic analysis of the work of UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies in the area of protecting human rights, while combating terrorism,through which a more effective role for such bodies is envisaged. The central thesis of the publication is captured in the following words of Salma Yusuf:



"{That said} it must be recognized that,the UN Human Rights Treaty Monitoring Bodies do and can continue to play a valuable role in sustaining the 'resilience of the Human Rights norm' in the age of battling against terrorism. Its contribution through normative development, towards the understanding of the core and penumbra of Human Rights Principles is among its greatest strengths.Further,by continually instilling the importance of mainstreaming Human Rights in the Counter-Terrorism discourse,it serves as an ever present reminder of the relationship between Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, and the futility of sacrificing one in the name of the other."

The publication,while pointing towards a possible middle ground in the Terrorism/Human Rights discourse,nevertheless strikes a note of political realism in setting out the considerable challenges that confront the Treaty Monitoring Bodies in pursuing such a course.