Anne Bayefsky
Thursday, February 22, 2007
With great fanfare on February 16, 2007 the UN launched its Counter-Terrorism Online Handbook – part of its claimed effort to implement the "UN counter-terrorism strategy" – an oxymoron if there ever was one.
Robert Orr, Chairman of the UN Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force briefed non-governmental organizations on developments February 21, 2007. He told the assembled crowd that the UN was taking "historic" steps concerning the fight against terrorism. Buried in his remarks was a passing comment that the drafting of a UN comprehensive convention against terrorism is "still hung up over some definitional questions on how to specifically define who is a terrorist. With that one stumbling block, the last major pillar in the international legal framework remains yet undone."
After all, to the UN crowd it's just same old same old. A day before the launch, on February 15, the UN concluded another round of failed negotiations to adopt a comprehensive convention against terrorism. The talks ended in deadlock – as they have for a decade – because the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) believes blowing up Americans and Israelis (and anybody else they claim get in the way of "self-determination") is not terrorism. Of course, self-determination for the millions living under undemocratic rule across the Arab world is not quite what they have in mind. Meanwhile, the rest of the globe slinks away from a nasty confrontation that would certainly ensue if anyone dared to insist on adopting a treaty or a terrorism definition over the OIC's objections.
Will you be sleeping better knowing the UN online counter-terrorism handbook to counter who-knows-what is just a click away?