Measures to eliminate international terrorism

Transcription

1 Forum: General Assembly 6 Issue: Measures to eliminate international terrorism Student Officer: Sama Ayoub Position: Head Chair Introduction Terrorism acts are often carried as an attempt to cause disruption in the current political, economic or social situation of the enemy, where the purpose is to weaken their power through disturbing their peace, creating a disruption in an essential system and allowing the sense of insecurity to grow amongst the living population on the land. Over time terrorism has grown to become one of the most important issues that concerns our world today, due to the conflicts and tension between countries, ethnic groups and religions rising which is only increasing the number of victims, the distributed economies and destroyed nations. Terrorism has known to be dated all the way to the French Revolution; In order for Jacobins to implement fear within their population, they carried out acts that included genocide and public executions. Such actions are still relevant and evident in our present world and sometimes even to a greater extent. Example of this include the plane attack on the twin towers which had occurred on the 11th of September, killing 3,000 people. The Madrid train bombing on the 11th of March 2004, which had killed 200 people. The Paris attack on Nov 13th of 2015 leaving 137 dead. While these are only a few of the many that have occurred over the course of a short period of time globally, the continuous increase of these terrorist attacks is evidence of them receiving financial support by bigger organizations and other countries that allows them to carry out such acts. The financing of terrorism by multiple nations in secrecy has been the key role in the increasing of terrorist attacks severity. Many previous attempts exist in order to eliminate international terrorism, however the complexity of how terrorist organizations operate, measures taken were unsuccessful due to the terrorism organisations being funded by third and anonymous parties. Terrorist organizations use funding in order to plan attacks, purchase arms, provide living situations for the terrorists and security or protection in order to stop nations or countries from identifying their locations, therefore; without money, terrorist organization are incapable of functioning. Addressing the financing of terrorism is an important step in order to progress towards eliminating terrorism internationally. Research Report Page 1 of 8

2 Definition of Key Terms Terrorism According to multiple treaties from the United Nations, terrorism is defined to be the execution of a crime or a threat imposed upon a population in order to force them to do obey specific commands or orders Money laundering Jeopardizing international security in order to allow illegal money to appear legitimate. An example of this is the UAE, as according to the CIA World Fact book; being a majorly active financial center, it is unguarded to money laundering and has yet not regulated its informal banking systems. Extremism An ideology or type of belief that is often strictly against or non-similar what most people believe. This very strong type of belief has been the reason behind terrorist attacks most of the time. Terrorist A person who uses illegal actions of crimes in order to enforce a certain political view or ideology State-sponsored terrorism The support or assistance of a state to individual terrorists or terrorist organizations as a method of foreign policy. Collective security The collaboration between allied countries in order to enhance the security of each country. Examples of this is the north Atlantic treaty organization, League of Nations and most prominent; the United Nations. Background Information Biological Terrorism Biological terrorism is the use of biological organisms such as bacteria, fungi or viruses in order to inflict harm on humans and living organisms. Due to the uncertain outcome of using such living organisms they are able to cause destruction on a global scale and therefore have been banned through the Biological Weapons Convention which was effective in 1975 by 109 signatories. An example of one of the earliest recordings of biological terrorism occurred in 1346, the siege of Cafe, written by a Lawyer near Genoa (Italy); the Tartars (Turkic nomads that were part of the Mongol empire) ordered corpses carrying the plague to be placed around the city in hopes of killing all those living there, the attackers also would stay close to the dead bodies which have suffered from the plague as an attempt of killing people in the city. Though the number of casualties or deaths were never recorded the devastation that biological terrorism Page 2 of 8 Research Report

3 can do should by no means be taken lightly. This instance of biological terrorism proves where it can be most fatal: Cities and Urbanized areas. Therefore, we must consider present technological practices within urbanised areas as it may have an adverse effect towards the dense populations of Countries such as China and India where biological terrorism may be most prominent towards. In present day, a biological attack would be implemented through explosive devices, contaminating food or water and aerosol sprays. The low-cost production of these weapons when considering the serious damage they cause alongside their simplicity makes them to be even more attractive by terrorist groups. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Chemical Destruction Data, during the rebel crisis of 2014 in Syria, a laptop was found which held information regarding the construction of biological weapons by ISIS alongside methods of protection for the developer of the microbes in order to protect ISIS members. Due to the serious dangers caused by such weapons, there have been attempts made in order to ban their production and use through the biological weapons convention which was implemented on the 26th of March in Nuclear terrorism Nuclear terrorism and attacks are ones of highest casualties and destruction effects, this is due to the consequences which follow the outcomes of the attack itself. While they are the most impactful they are the least to be used by terrorist organizations due to their complexity and difficulty of construction. In order to construct nuclear weapons, the terrorist organizations would first have to supply themselves with the needed nuclear materials and then recruit scientists or specialists capable of carrying out such task. However, taking Middle Eastern terrorist organizations as an example, the constant instability between the terrorist groups has caused a shortage in scientists and specialist contributors to the building of nuclear weapons, which therefore would limit their chances as recruiting scientists from western countries would be a very risky situation in terms of the revealing of the terrorist groups location. Chemical terrorism The most used type of terrorism by terrorist groups is often chemical based because of its advantages and benefits when compared to weapons of mass destruction. Mustard gas is a frequent used agent during terror attacks, and this is due to its cheap cost alongside its simple production, and definite outcomes. Mustard gas has been most commonly used in both Syria and Iraq during August of Furthermore, and according to the United Nations, the Islamic state used mustard gas on Syrians as they are working on and in process of creating chemical weapon programs. While the Islamic state works on developing such programs, the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) is fighting against these chemical weapons; as they have managed to force the Assad regime to hand over their chemical weapons due to the 2013 reports which revealed that the Syrian regime was using chemical weapons in order to fight against the rebel forces; the regime resulted in the use of 1,308,021 Kg of chemicals, 98.8% of which was destroyed. Research Report Page 3 of 8

4 Major Countries and Organizations Involved The financial action task force FATF is an organization that was established during 1989 with a goal of fighting against crimes specifically related to the financing of terrorist organizations. The organization achieves its goals through examining and developing measures to combat money laundering which could be embedded in country policies. Furthermore, this organization is actively seized on the matter through continuously changing their recommendations and policies in order for them to be effective when considering the changes in strategy continuously made by terrorist groups in order to avoid financial detection. At this moment, there are 38 Member States that are part of the organization, where they are all eligible to be part of it due to being strategically important because of their large populations and common banking methods which allow the organization to easily implement its recommended policies and therefore achieve the goal on a larger scale. Currently the most recent recommendations and policy changes focus on dangers imposed by financing weapons of mass destruction, where measures are being taken in. The United Nations office on counter terrorism This organization aims at strengthening and supporting any organization striving towards the combating of terrorism through the United Nations. This organization has also been involved in helping specific nations in taking specific and narrower actions towards the addressing of the issue. An example of this, is the organizations work done with Colombia; in 2009, the UN office on counter terrorism created special tools that had a purpose of enhancing nation s capability in carrying out actions of ending the financing of local terrorist groups. United States of America The U.S.A is an effective contributor towards the creation and production of mass destruction weapons and their security. The U.S has been reported to have more intercontinental ballistic missile and Submarine launched ballistic missile than Russia. On another note, the U.S.A and Russia both had signed the strategic offensive reductions treaty, where both nations had agreed on reducing their nuclear stockpiles as a method of combating the issue. Russia Russia is an essential key player that is involved in preventing weapons of mass destruction from being supplied to terrorists and radical groups. The U.S.A and Russia have collaborated in order to combat terrorist acts that are carried out through the use of mass destruction weapons. Both countries had initiated The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism in early of 2006 and as of now the initiative involves 86 Member States. Unexpectedly, Russia is strongly against nuclear supported terrorism; as they are working on reaching a local stage where they are able to prevent and be the ones Page 4 of 8 Research Report

5 to detect any type of nuclear terrorism. Furthermore, Russia alongside the G-7 agreed to put in a total of $10 billion with a purpose of contributing to helping Russia with eradicating weapons of mass destruction, this event occurred during the 27th of June of the 2002 summit. Timeline of Events Date: Event Description: 1972 Richard Nixon, former U.S president, established the cabinet committee with a goal of eliminating terrorism on both a local and global scale through learning about the terrorism complexities 1980 s Iran is involved in establishing the Hezbollah group through empowering smaller and weaker Shi i Lebanese groups 1989 The financial action task force is established in Paris, France to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. 9th of December th of January th of September th of September th of April th of July 2016 The terrorist financing convention takes place 132 member states are signatories to the terrorist financing convention The airplane attack on the twin towers in NYC which lead to the U.S declaring war against international terrorism The counter terrorism committee is established in the United Nations in order to combat terrorism based off of the 9/11 incident Terrorism acts declared illegal through Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism Financing signed in the United Nations Terror attack occurs in France, drawing France s attention to possible ways in order to combat terrorism 15th of June 2017 Counter terrorism committee established in the U.N Relevant UN Treaties and Events UN convention of the Suppression of terrorism financing, December 9th, 1999, (54/109) Creation of the Counter Terrorism Committee, September 28, 2001, (S/RES/1373) Research Report Page 5 of 8

6 Secretary-General s report Uniting against Terrorism: Recommendations for Global Counterterrorism Strategy, April 27, 2006, (A/60/825) Measures to Prevent Terrorists from Acquiring Weapons of Mass Destruction (Report of the Secretary-General), 16 July 2009 (A/64/140) The United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy Review, June 24, 2014 (A/RES/68/276) Resolution on international judicial cooperation in countering terrorism, December 12, 2016 (S/RES/2322) Measures to eliminate international terrorism, December 7, 2017 (A/RES/72/123) Security Council Resolution 2370 (2017), 2 August 2017 (S/RES/2370(2017) Previous Attempts to solve the Issue Many proposed solutions to this issue have been very effective in addressing the most important aspects of the issue in order to eradicate it completely. However, most solutions have not been implemented correctly or have received the needed support and therefore have not been effective towards the issue itself. The United Nations Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism Financing aims to criminalize all acts of terrorism regardless of its form in addition to strengthening the mutual support between member states to prevent acts of terrorism from occurring. This convention was finalized in Based on the current data for 2018, there are 188 states that have signed this treaty causing it to be considered as one of the most successful counter terrorism treaties. Subsequently, member nations have pledged to freezing assets that are being used to finance terrorism in addition to sharing the classification of these assets with the other members to ensure that measures are taken to prevent issues from arising in the future. As mentioned above, the nature of these terrorist groups is regularly changing to adapt to different circumstances. The main reason for their continuation is the lack of communication between nations, although this issue is addressed in many solutions there is still ways to improve the constant communication between nations. Terrorist organizations are capable of using this lack of communication to their advantage by exploiting the weaknesses and using them to their advantage. In a similar way, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) have laid the structure to address this issue from its roots. The FATF follows 5 basic approaches that explain the actions that all nations must do to address the issue. These are: to understand the risks of terrorist funding, establish effective standards to combat this funding, to ensure countries are effectively implementing tools provided in order to identify suspicious activity, to identify countries with a shortage in strategies tackling this issue, and to promote constructive cooperation between nations. A key element in this process is to identify nations that have a weak ability to implement these counter terrorism financing measures put into place. A nation with weak local standards creates a global financial risk with terrorist organizations always aiming to go against these measures by exploiting these weaknesses. As a result, the role of the FATF is and always will be Page 6 of 8 Research Report

7 crucial in the process of preserving the cohesion of the global economy and ensuring a future free of terrorism. Possible Solutions An important approach to consider towards this issue is looking at corruption in borders. This can be addressed through training officers that are working under the United Nations programs in order to know how to handle and deal with terrorist-imposed attacks and organizations who are attempting to cross country borders. This proposal can be fulfilled through the use of surveillance cameras in order to increase security as well as increasing the salaries of the designated officials to avoid any type of bribery that could be offered by those international terrorist groups. This solution is targeted at Less Economically Developed Countries and Newly Industrialized Countries including Somalia, Honduras and Zimbabwe, in which such member states would allow the UN to monitor their country for them. Another important approach to this issue is encouraging countries to adopt and follow policies in which they work on eliminating the financing of terrorists. The type of policies could include; the EU action plan to strengthen the Fight against Terrorist Financing or the UN s FATF Special Recommendation III: Freezing and confiscating terrorist assets. Additionally, an important issue that must be solved within the question at hand is implementing policies which strengthen the in ability of youth to be recruited into terrorist organizations, as most terrorist organizations target such age groups. This solution could be developed through: the EU Preventing and Countering Youth Radicalisation or the French stop djihadisme program. Unlike previously stated possible solutions, some countries including the USA, France and Russia have expressed their willingness to attack terrorist groups and use harsh methods in order to reach to more successful results. These measures include; hacking and spying on digital systems that could be affiliated with the terrorist organizations. Resolutions on improving the governance of such groups have been made by the UN, which include; Improving the governance and financial situation of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: recommendations of the standing open-ended intergovernmental working group on improving the governance and financial situation of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Bibliography Biological Terrorism and Agents. AAP. Terrorism-and-Agents.aspx. COUNTER TERRORISM. United Nations. Research Report Page 7 of 8

8 Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism: ICRC Statement to the United Nations, Comité Internacional De La Cruz Roja, 1, 5 Oct. 2017, Nuclear Terrorism Fact Sheet. Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, OPCW Holds Conference on Countering Chemical Terrorism. Chemical Weapons Convention, Sixth Committee, Legal, United Nations, Main Body, Main Organs, General Assembly. United Nations, United Nations, Terrorism. Our World in Data, ourworldindata.org/terrorism. United Nations. Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism - Report of the Secretary-General. Refworld, What Do We Do. FATF-GAFI.ORG - Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Page 8 of 8 Research Report