Checkered Past and Uncertain Future: UN Attempts to Define Terrorism

Abstract

Defining terrorism was at one point a stand out feature of all UN conventions and resolutions on terrorism. Even though direct confrontation with the problem was usually avoided and the task was often delegated to future conventions, the matter was still deemed indispensible. Over time however, this failure to engage with the problem directly and the tendency to delegate the responsibility to future conventions proved to be detrimental. Among other things, it encouraged the UN to adopt indirect measures and approaches that were otherwise meant to be only provisional and auxiliary. Gradually and somewhat inadvertently, the UN began to treat these ad hoc approaches as a substitute for the definition of terrorism. By methodically dissecting the numerous UN conventions and resolutions on terrorism over the years, this article intends to expose the silent acceptance of these indirect approaches that were intended to be purely transitionary. It will evaluate the fallout of this tacit policy that seriously undermines the ultimate goal of defining and codifying terrorism.