LEGAL COMMITTEE MEETS BRIEFLY; ADJOURNS TO ALLOW FOR FURTHER CONSULTATIONS ON DRAFT TEXT ON MEASURES AGAINST INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM
Press Release
GA/L/3174
LEGAL COMMITTEE MEETS BRIEFLY; ADJOURNS TO ALLOW FOR FURTHER CONSULTATIONS ON DRAFT TEXT ON MEASURES AGAINST INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM
20001121The Sixth Committee (Legal) adjourned a brief meeting this morning to allow for further consultations on the last remaining draft resolution on its agenda, on measures to eliminate international terrorism. It will meet again at 3 p.m. today to take action on the draft, the text of which was circulated among members last Friday.
Draft resolution
By the draft resolution on Measures to eliminate international terrorism (A/C.6/55/L.17), the General Assembly, deeply disturbed by persistent worldwide acts of terrorism, would strongly condemn them as criminal and unjustifiable, irrespective of where they were committed, and by whom.
The text would reiterate that criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public for political purposes are unjustifiable, whatever the political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other considerations.
The Assembly would also reiterate its call upon States to adopt further measures, in accordance with the relevant provisions of international law, including international standards of human rights, to prevent terrorism and to strengthen international cooperation in combating it. States would be asked to consider, in particular, implementing measures set out in paragraphs 3 (a) to (f) of General Assembly resolution 51/210 of 17 December 1996.
[Those measures, among others, recommend that relevant security officials should undertake consultations to improve the capability of governments to prevent, investigate and respond to terrorist attacks. Other provisions call for bilateral and multilateral agreements and arrangements on speeding up investigations and cooperation between law enforcement agencies to detect and prevent terrorist acts.]
Stressing the need for such joint action, the General Assembly would reaffirm that international cooperation, as well as individual acts of States must conform to the principles of the United Nations Charter, international law and relevant international conventions. It would call for exchange of information on terrorism and the avoidance of the dissemination of inaccurate or unverified information.
By other provisions of the draft text, the Assembly would call upon States to refrain from financing, encouraging, training or supporting terrorist
Sixth Committee - 2 - Press Release GA/L/3174 34th Meeting (AM) 21 November 2000
activities. They would be urged to become parties to relevant anti-terrorist conventions and protocols, as well as the most recent International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. The Assembly would also urge the enactment of domestic legislation necessary to implement those instruments to ensure the trial of offenders.
The Assembly would reaffirm its 1994 Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism as well as the Supplement to that Declaration contained in the annex to resolution 51/210, and would call upon all States to implement them.
It would welcome the efforts of the Terrorism Prevention Branch of the Centre for International Crime Prevention in Vienna to enhance the capabilities of the United Nations to prevent terrorism.
States and regional intergovernmental organizations would be invited to submit to the Secretary-General information on laws and regulations, as well as measures taken, respectively, to prevent, suppress and eliminate international terrorism.
The Assembly would decide that its Ad Hoc Committee on terrorism should continue work on the comprehensive convention on international terrorism, and on the draft international convention for the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism. The Assembly would decide that the Ad Hoc Committee should meet twice in 2001 for that purpose -- from 12 to 23 February and, within the framework of a working group of the Sixth Committee from 15 to 26 October.
The meetings would be a continuing effort towards the further development of a comprehensive legal framework of conventions on international terrorism. The question of the convening of a high-level conference under United Nations auspices to formulate a joint organized response of the international community to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations would also be on the Ad Hoc Committees agenda. (The Committee was established under General Assembly resolution 51/210 of 17 December 1996.)
An item on Measures to eliminate international terrorism would be included in the provisional agenda of the General Assemblys fifty-sixth session.
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