Introduction-
From 9/11 that happened in United
States of America to 26/11 that happened in India, these brutal terrorist acts
shook not just the citizens of these two countries but also of those
around the world. Terrorism is a global threat and needs a global governing
mechanism that can help in countering such unwanted activities. The Institute
of Economics and Peace provides with a Global Terrorism Index systematically
bringing up a rank of various nations according to the number of terrorist
activities occurred. The main aim behind the same is to find a trend of such
intentional violence caused especially to the civilians. Public International
Law plays a major role in curbing the issue of global terrorism in order to
promote and sustain international peace and security. United Nations Security
Council is one such organization working to ensure harmony amongst different
states worldwide.
We in this written piece aim to
provide an analysis of the existing international bodies, treaties, rules and
regulations under the ambit of public international law working to promote
peaceful development and prevent calculated use of violence by individual or
group. The paper shall also emphasis on the history, role and importance of
United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and its four major pillars
strengthening the role of the member states.
In broader terms, terrorism is a
violent activity involving attacking a specific group or mass of civilians for
personal-political objectives. One of the worst terrorist attacks that happened
in India were the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai causing death of 165 civilians and
injuring more than 300 people. The attack was systematically planned by 10
terrorists who were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba over a course of four days. The
attack shook not just the citizens of India, but all the countries around the
globe. Similar was the 9/11 attack that happened in United States of America by
a terrorist group called Al-Qaeda that caused death of 2,977 civilians and
injured 25,000 people. These two attacks depict how global terrorist attacks
have impacted the world at large.
The difference between International
and Domestic Terrorism is that in case of former, the criminal acts are
committed by individuals who are associated by designated foreign terrorist
organizations. In case of Domestic Terrorism, the acts are committed by
individuals or group of members that stem from certain domestically located
groups such as political or religious groups within the country.[1]
Happening of such dreadful activities
by a group of people, generally not residing in that country itself,
shows that terrorism is an international violent activity. Terrorism not just
leads to lethal deaths and injuries, but also causes huge damage to property
and affects people psychological. Therefore, having an international
mechanism that could control and minimize was needed. Global Security is
ensuring safety of the countries is extremely essential. This is where the role
of Public International Law arises.
Public International Law includes set
of norms, rules, regulations and principle-guidelines that are to be followed
and accepted by different countries and honored by all in order to have a
harmonious relationship.[2] The framework creates
guidelines with respect to trade, citizenship, diplomatic-relations, war,
security and civil rights amongst others. Public International Law can be
derived from through various treaties, customs and conventions that are signed
and confirmed by the states.
Global Terrorism Index-
The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) is a
statistical data prepared and published every year by the Institute for
Economics and Peace (IEP). The index was initially started by the founder of
the organization since the beginning of the 21st century. The index is prepared
with an aim to have an overall idea of which country has the highest terrorism
rate to the lowest. The basic idea is that once such a report is prepared and
published, the countries can make a fair evaluation of are the things that they
need to work on in order to minimize terrorist activities. It is very important
for the countries to find the trends of these violent acts that are happening,
so that they can take measures to combat them effectively.
The data is also called as the Global
Terrorism Data (GTD) and is collected by the Institute for Economics and Peace
with the help and collaboration of National Consortium for the Study of
Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland
covering the data of over 163 countries.
The GTD database is collected under
certain categories as per the codebook which looks and observes many variables
in order to get a proper statistical analysis including-
1. The
date of incident
2. The
city and region of incident
3. The
state and country of incident
4. The
measured latitude and longitude
5. The
name and identity of the attacker group
6. The
method and mode of attack
7. The
kind of attack and its nature including the type of target.
8. The
nationality of the target-victim group
9. To
know the outcome of the violent attack.
10. To
know the quantum of damage
11. Number
of people that died due to the attack.
12. Number
of people that were injured in the incident.
13. To
map whether the attack was target by an international or national organization.[3]
All the information related to the
above variables is drawn majorly from publicly available source materials. The
information could be in the form of books, reading materials, news and other
relevant legal documents.
According to GTI, terrorism is “the
threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to
attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion,
or intimidation”.[4] Further, there are few things
that are to be part of the act in order to be considered as a terrorist
activity. The criteria laid down for the same is following-
i. The
act should depict an intent of the attacker. This means that the act was done
for a specific purpose to cause a specific outcome.
ii. There
should be violence of a grave nature. The violence could also be in form of a
threat or intimidation. The causality of such a violent act could either be on
the living beings or property.
iii. The
violent lethal act should be done by sub-national members of the country.
When all of the above given criteria are
met with, only then the act shall be considered as an act of terrorism and then
tallied by the Institute for Economics and Peace.
As per the Global Terrorism Index
2020, the deaths that occurred as a consequence to terrorist activities
fell by fifteen percent when compared to the previous years. There was a
twenty-percent decrease in terrorist deaths in Middle East and North Africa,
Russia and Eurasia, South America and South Asian region countries. While some
countries observed a decease, few regions were affected severely due to
terrorism. Such countries included Africa, Burkina Faso, Sri Lanka, and
Afghanistan.
According to the latest index,
Taliban was the deadliest terrorist group in the year 2019. Other
such groups that caused major terrorist activities were Boko Haram, Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant, Al-Shabaab amongst others. The rank of top 10
countries as per the Global Terrorist Index (GTI) was in Afghanistan, Iraq,
Nigeria, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, India, Democratic Republic of the
Congo and Philippines.
According to the index, it was
predicted that covid-19 could worsen the impact of terrorism as it increased
opportunities for the terrorist organizations to expand their activities.
Several government authorities and forces focused majorly on the global pandemic
and sought to find possible solutions to decrease the adverse effect of the
same on human health. However, global pandemic can also be seen creating
situational problems for the terrorist organizations. With so many travel and
accommodation restrictions, it would not be easy for the organizations to
easily place themselves at the attacking area.
Public International Law-
The role of public international law
is to create set of rules and regulations along with various treaties that
would help in creating a holistic network.[5] The network or association of
member-states can be made for fulfilling various purposes and bettering the
existing systems of trade, health and security.[6] The United Nations is one such
international organization that was originated in 1945, aiming to create
friendly relations of countries and nation-states which are member to the
organization. There are 193 member states of the United Nations who have to abide
by the all the bodies i.e., the General Assembly, the Economic and Social
Council, the Security Council, the Trusteeship Council, the UN Secretariat and
the International Court of Justice.
All the bodies of the United Nations
play an important role in countering-terrorism globally. There are various
sub-committees that deal with countering terrorism, namely-
1. The
Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee)[7] which addresses the problems of
crime prevention and justice for those who became the victim of such criminal
violent acts.
2. The
Sixth Committee (Legal Committee) adopted the milestone Declaration on Measures
to Eliminate International Terrorism.[8] The organization defines
terrorism as criminal acts that cannot be justified at any costs.
3. Ad
Hoc Committee established in by General Assembly resolution 51/210- The General
Assembly mandated to an International Convention for the Suppression of
Terrorist Bombings and International Convention for the Suppression of the
Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention for the Suppression of
Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. These three treaties were majorly adopted by the
formation of the committee.
4. United
Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy- the strategy was formulated in
September 2006 which aims to be a global instrument to enhance ways that can
counter terrorism nationally, regionally and internationally. The Strategy
consists majorly four pillars-
· Measures
that can be taken to address the conditions conductive to the spread of terrorism.
· Measures
that can be taken to prevent and combat terrorism.
· Measures
that can help in building a nation’s capacity to prevent and combat the issues
of terrorism along with strengthen the international organization.
· Measures
that will ensure respect for the human and civil rights for all along with
creating fundamental basis that will help in fighting terrorism.[9]
5. The
United Nations Security consists of fifteen member states and few
permanent members i.e., China, France, the Russian Federation, the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America).
6. Counter-Terrorism
Implementation Task Force (CTITF) is a force that focuses on coordinating and
information-sharing body that remains forever active in countering-terrorism.
This Task Force addresses several issues such as Financing of Terrorism, Civil
Rights, Implementation and Integration, Radicalization that leads to terrorist
activities, use of modern technology including internet, focusing on the
victims of such violent activities and safeguarding group that is more likely
to be targeted.[10]
7. Terrorist
Prevention Branch- this organization focuses on providing technical assistance
to counter and combat terrorism in legal and other areas. It also focuses on
specific mandates that are drawn parallelly taking into consideration the
principle of rule of law. It also tends to connect the intergovernmental
bodies, crime commission, the economic and social council in order to prevent
crime and help in providing justice to those who have suffered by the terrorist
activities.
8. The
International Court of Justice helps in solving the disputes before the court.
There are two types of cases that are to be taken- legal disputes that happen
between states and providing advice to state excluding on-member states and
individuals. However, ICJ has jurisdiction over states who have accepted its
jurisdiction.
Conclusion-
Looking at the whole scenario of
terrorism, terrorist activities are of two kinds- domestic and
international. In case of domestic, the countries themselves investigate the
matters as the terrorist-group is of the nation which is targeted. In case of
international terrorism, the terrorist organizer is not of the same state which
is attacked. The Global Terrorism Index which is formed by the Institute of
Economics and Peace helps in providing a global statical data of the number of
activities that have taken place and provides an overview of the number of
people that died, injured and the number of people who participated in
conducting the terrorist activities.
The need for Public International Law
arises in order to combat the international terrorist activities that are
rising speedily. The United Nations plays an extremely important role as the
various bodies of the organization have formulated ways to counter the problem
of terrorism. The focus on tracking the patterns of terrorism and then mapping
the same so that they can be prevented by breaking the chain of patterns of the
attacker.
Promotion of peace and security of
the countries is very necessary with the changing times. Now that more
globalization and trade is increasing, each country plays an
important role in supporting another country. If such violent and grave attacks
of terrorism continue, it would become extremely difficult and tense for
nations to create a network and work together for economic profits. Terrorism
not just takes away lives of people but also damages the property and
infrastructure of a country. The economic losses are humongous and
non-bearable. It also affects the mental state of victims making it difficult
for them to come out of the condition.
The countries should focus on
creating more treaties amongst themselves to create a safe and sound environment
for each other and cooperate in such sensitive matters extensively. If the
security won’t be increased, it will adversely affect trade-relations and
thereby create a state of disbalance for entire world.
Also read- Kashmir Issue and Indus Water Treaty Reality - Wars for Water
[1] https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/terrorism
[2] John W. Foster
, The Evolution of International Law, John W. Foster,18 The Yale Law
Journal, 149(1909).
[3] https://web.archive.org/web/20190806051512/https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/using-gtd/
[4] "Data
Collection Methodology". “www.start.umd.edu. Archived from the original on 6 August 2019.
Retrieved 13 July 2017.
[5] Joost Pauwelyn,
The Role of Public International Law in the WTO: How Far Can We Go? ,95
The American Journal of International Law, 535(2001).
[6] Philip Marshall Brown,
The Rights of States under International Law, 26 The Yale Law
Journal,85(1916).
[7] Economic and
Social Council (ECOSOC), www.un.org/ecosoc.
[8] General
Assembly resolution 49/60 of 9 December 1994, Declaration on Measures to
Eliminate International Terrorism, A/RES/49/60.
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