UN adopts draft convention to combat nuclear terrorism

THE UN General Assembly's ad-hoc Committee on International Terrorism under the chairmanship of Dr. Rohan Perera, Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adopted by consensus the text of a draft international convention to combat nuclear terrorism on April 1 in New York.

The draft convention, which is the result of seven years of work by the ad hoc Committee will provide for a definition of acts of nuclear terrorism and covers a broad range of possible targets, including those against nuclear power plants and nuclear reactors, the Foreign Ministry said in a release yesterday.

Based on an instrument originally proposed by the Russian Federation in 1998, the draft convention will also apply to threats, and attempts to commit such crimes, as well as to participation in them, as an accomplice.

The convention requires offenders to be either extradited or persecuted and also encourages States to cooperate in preventing terrorist attacks by sharing information and assisting each other in dealing with crisis situations, post crisis situations and also with criminal investigations and extradition proceedings.

The draft convention will be ready for signature by States, from September 14, 2005, at the High Level Summit of Heads of State being convened in connection with the 60th anniversary celebrations of the United Nations. It will be open for signature until December 31, 2006 at the UN headquarters in New York.

Welcoming the adoption of the text, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the convention would help prevent terrorists from gaining access to the most lethal weapons known to man.

He added: "It would strengthen the international legal framework against terrorism which included 12 existing universal conventions and protocols."

The Secretary General called on all States to become parties to the convention as well as to all other universal counter-terrorism instruments.

Ad-hoc Committee Chairman Dr. Rohan Perera commended the spirit of goodwill and political compromise shown by delegations during the negotiations and said the adoption of the draft convention "sent a strong signal to the international community, in unequivocal terms, that the General Assembly and its bodies had the capacity and the political will to meet current challenges and duly discharge their norm-creating repsonsiblities."

Member countries welcoming the draft convention stated that the adoption of the text proved the pivotal role that was played by the General Assembly in the area of international law and combating international terrorism.

Delegations also expressed the hope that the same spirit of cooperation would prevail during negotiations to finalize the draft comprehensive convention on international terrorism.