International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings

The 1997 United Nations International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings (Terrorist Bombings Convention) is a multilateral treaty open to the ratification of all states designed to criminalize the unlawful and intentional use of explosives in public places with intention to kill, to injure, or to cause extensive destruction to compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing some act. It also seeks to promote police and judicial cooperation to prevent, investigate and punish those acts.

Article 2.1 of this convention defines the offence of terrorist bombing as follows:

"Any person commits an offence within the meaning of this Convention if that person unlawfully and intentionally delivers, places, discharges or detonates an explosive or other lethal device in, into or against a place or public use, a State or government facility, a public transportation system or an infrastructure facility:

a) With the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury; or

b)With the intent to cause extensive destruction of such a place, facility or system, where such a destruction results in or is likely to result in major economic loss.^[1]

Article 19 expressly excluded from the scope of the convention certain activities of state armed forces and of self-determination movements as follows:

"1. Nothing in this Convention shall affect other rights, obligations and responsibilities of States, and individuals under international law, in particular the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and international humanitarian law. 2. The activities of armed forces during an armed conflict, as those terms are understood under international humanitarian law, which are governed by that law, are not governed by this Convention, and the activities undertaken by the military forces of a State in the exercise of their official duties, inasmuch as they are governed by other rules of international law, are not governed by this Convention.^[2]

For the text of this convention see: 1997 International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings (Terrorist Bombing Convention)

See also

• Definition of terrorism
• International conventions on terrorism
• United Nations General Assembly Sixth Committee (Legal)

References

1. ^ Terrorist Bombing Convention art. 2.1.
2. ^ Terrorist Bombing Convention art. 19.

Further reading

• ASIL, Conventions on the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and on Financing, 96 American Journal of International Law, 255-258.(2002)
• C.F. Diaz-Paniagua, Negotiating terrorism: The negotiation dynamics of four UN counter-terrorism treaties, 1997-2005, City University of New York (2008).
• Guiseppe Nesi, ed., International Cooperation in Counter-terrorism: the United Nations and regional organizations in the fight against terrorism. Aldershort, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Co., (2005).
• Ben Saul, Defining Terrorism in International Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)
• Samuel M.,Witten, The International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, 94 American Journal of International Law 774 – 781 (1998).