UN Security Council Resolution 1373 - Definition

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 is an anti-terrorism measure adopted September 28 2001 following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The resolution aimed to place barriers on the movement, organization and fund-raising activities of terrorist groups. UN member states were encouraged to share their intelligence on terrorist groups in order to assist in combating international terrorism.

However, this resolution failed to define 'Terrorism', and the working group initially only added Al-Qaida and the Taliban regime of Afghanistan on the sanctions list. This also entailed the danger that authoritarian regimes could label even non-violent activities as terrorist acts, hurting thus basc human rights.

UN Security Council Resolution 1566 picked up loose ends from 1373 by actually spelling out what the Security Council sees as terrorism: "criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act."

Further, resolution 1566 called for the creation of a working group that will expand the list of terrorist entities under sanction beyond the Taliban and Al-Qaida.

External links

• UN Counter Terrorism Committee (http://www.un.org/docs/sc/committees/1373/)
• UN press release on adopted resolution (http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/sc7158.doc.htm)

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