Uri attack: India to push for global convention against terrorism at UN
New Delhi: With External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj set to make an address at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Monday in the background of the Uri attack, India is building up momentum to push for consensus amongst member countries to adopt the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), a draft of which, it had proposed way back in 1996.
According to reports, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the CCIT would give “legal teeth to prosecute terrorist acts”.
India’s ambassador at the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, even went further. He was quoted as saying that India was considering all options, including forcing "voting" on the CCIT.
Former chief of UN Peace Keeping Forces Lt Gen (retd) Satish Nambiar was quoted as saying long before the developed world had begun to take cognisance of the threat of terrorism, India had proposed this draft with the aim to take a holistic approach and collective action to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Ratification of such a convention by member states would bind them to action on the contents, the report said.
There has been opposition from three main blocs since the CCIT draft was tabled first – the United States (US), OIC and Latin American countries. The most contentious part in the draft relates to the definition of terrorism that all 193-members of the UNGA will have to adopt into their own criminal law.
Other important provisions include binding countries to ban all terror groups and shut down terror camps regardless of their stated objectives, prosecute all terrorists under special laws, and to make cross-border terrorism an 'extraditable' offence.
However, the draft was modified in 2013 to address the US concern that its troops engaged in war in the Middle East, which have been accused of human rights abuses, should be kept out of the ambit of the act. The OIC on the other hand is concerned about how the act will impact the Israel-Palestine conflict.
At the G20 Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had particularly referred to the proposed convention. Sushma Swaraj's address on Monday is likely to push towards stronger consensus towards the CCIT.
Currently, the CCIT draft is being discussed at the Sixth Ad Hoc Committee of the United Nations, set up by the General Assembly to supplement existing conventions against terrorism.
